Cover Reveal/Can't Wait to Read ♥ Always Second Best by Elodie Nowodazkij

Hello, guys! Astăzi sunt onorată să particip la un cover reveal al celui de-al doilea volum al unei serii pe care am descoperit-o de curând și îmi place. Mai exact, este vorba de seria Broken Dreams de Elodie Nowodazkij, o serie YA care are în centru relațiile romantice și baletul. Fără alte introduceri, iată minunata copertă, însoțită de o descriere a cărții și un giveaway. ^^

Always Second Best by Elodie Nowodazkij
(Broken Dreams, #2)
Publication date: October 13th 2015
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Sometimes being first isn’t what you expected.

Seventeen-year-old ballerina Emilia Moretti is tired of always being second best. And she’s going to prove the world she deserves to be first. In her upcoming School of the Performing Arts showcase. In the eyes of her birth parents. And in the heart of the guy she loves. She spends hours rehearsing, hours dreaming about becoming number one, hours imagining how her entire life is about to change. But when nothing goes the way she planned, she’ll need to realize what it really means to be first.

Eighteen-year-old Nick Grawski doesn’t want to follow Daddy Dearest’s rules any longer. He's going to prove he's meant to be a dancer—not a lawyer—and he is not going to stay away from Em just because his father demands it. He needs to show Em that—this time around—he’s there to stay and that he won’t break her heart again. Even when her world goes down to shit, even when he finds out his dad may have been trying to protect him all along, even if being there for one another is harder than falling in love.

ALWAYS SECOND BEST is a novel of hope and heartbreak and broken dreams. It’s a novel about falling in love and discovering that being first isn’t always what matters.

Goodreads * Special pre-order price of $2.99 on Amazon: Purchase

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PS: Dacă doriți să aflați mai multe despre această serie, să participați la concursuri sau să discutați despre lectură în general, alăturați-vă grupului de Facebook Elodie's Cozy Nook. :)

Cover Reveal and Giveaway ♥ The Star Catcher

If you enjoy reading about magic and fairytales, The Star Child series by Stephanie Keyes is a really cute choice. Today I am really excited to be part of the Cover Reveal for the third book, The Star Catcher.

The Star Catcher (The Star Child #3)

By Stephanie Keyes

Release Date: Fall 2013

Publisher: Inkspell Publishing

Cover Designed by: Najla Qamber Designs

Book Summary

Magick and destiny intertwine as he fights to save his kingdom and the goddess he loves.
Her kiss…the feel of her skin…the beat of her heart…For seventeen-year-old Kellen St. James, each memory is marred by a single sentence on a lone strip of paper.
Cali has been taken…
Armed with an amulet that channels the ultimate power of Faerie, Kellen searches for his love. However, control of the amulet’s energy comes with a price, and Kellen soon learns that Cali’s captor has plans for the stone. With the threat of the Star Catcher’s evil looming above Kellen and his kingdom, he’ll have to free the Heart of Faerie and break the curse the binds the Children of Danu to the darkness. But before that, he has to find his real father, the king. No pressure, right?
Kellen and Cali will battle bewitched armies and unknown foes as they fight to stay together. Will Kellen embrace his immortal destiny? Or will his world, and the man he is fated to become, be destroyed by The Star Catcher?

Pre-Order HERE!

Previous books in the series:

About the Author

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. Today, she's still doing the same thing, except now she gets
to share those ideas with readers!

When she's not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she's best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.

Mrs. Keyes holds an undergraduate degree in Business and Management Information Systems from Robert Morris University and a M.Ed. from Duquesne University. She is a member of the Society For Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), as well as a featured author in the global group of writers, Love a Happy Ending.com.

Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child, After Faerie, The Fallen Stars, and the soon to-be-released finale, The Star Catcher (November 2013), all from by Inkspell Publishing. Mrs. Keyes is hard at work on a new YA Paranormal Romance.

***Author Links***

Website / Goodreads / Twitter

GIVEAWAY:

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{Nerd Blast} Back to You by Annie Brewer

Back to You by Annie Brewer

Genre: YA Romance

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On the outside, 17 year old Abby Lewis has it all. She is dating the HS Football star, has a best friend anybody would kill for and a love and passion for singing that could send her to Broadway. But on the inside a storm is raging inside of her that she can no longer hide. As her life at home becomes more unbearable she turns to the only rock she has ever known, Lucas. When her father abandoned her and her sister, Lucas was there to help her pick up the pieces. And now that her dad wants back in her life, Lucas will again be her source of strength. But she isn’t his and Abby can’t stand the thought of being anyone else’s. Will she ever be able to let go of the past? Or will she let it control her for good?

You can purchase Back to You at the following Retailers: 

Amazon / Barnes&Noble

About Annie Brewer

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

Annie Brewer leads several lives. At home she’s a caring mother of two with a heart of gold. Online, she’s a best friend to several and puts a smile on her many fans every time she utters a word. In her own world, she’s a dreamer. But the biggest part of her is made of books, books, and more books. It’s not a surprise she’s turned out to be such a talented young author. Some of her many hobbies include reading, drooling over Ian Somerhalder, Channing Tatum,and Christian Grey (etc.), reading, reviewing, reading, watching Vampire Diaries, reading, and last but not least WRITING like a maniac. She currently resides in Texas, where she dies of heat-strokes every few seconds, with her many books and book-boyfriends, and her two adorable little girls.

GIVEAWAY

10 Winners will receive an E-Copy of Back to You.

3 Winners will receive a Back to You Bookmark.

Must be 13+ to Enter

International Giveaway

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{Nerd Blast} Eternal Starling by Angela Corbett

I am sure everyone has already heard of Eternal Starling. Here is your chance to win a copy!

Eternal Starling by Angela Corbett
Genre: YA Romance
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Synopsis 

A love so strong, even eternity can’t separate them. Evie Starling has lived a relatively uneventful life hanging out with friends, gossiping about boys, and driving her 1966 Mustang.

All of that changes when she moves to Gunnison, Colorado, to start college and meets two mysterious men. For centuries, Alex Night and Emil Stone have yearned for Evie but they each have their own reasons for wanting to be with her. When both men claim to be her soul mate and tell her about an unbelievable past, Evie learns that she s not the person she thought she was. Soon, Evie finds herself in the middle of an age-old battle between the Amaranthine Society the soul protectors, and the Daevos Resistance the soul destroyers. With a past she doesn t understand, and a future rife with danger, Evie has to decide who she can trust. But Alex and Emil aren t the only ones who want Evie, and her soul is about to become the rope in an eternal tug-of-war.

You can purchase Eternal Starling at the following Retailers:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / BookDepository

Giveaway (International)

7 Winners will receive an E-Book Copy of Eternal Starling.

2 Winners will receive a Signed Copy+Swag of Eternal Starling.

Must be 13+ to Enter

International Giveaway

About Angela Corbett

As a child, Angela Corbett’s most prized possession was a set of read-along books. She used to follow along with the narrator on the stereo and dream of when she would be able to read by herself. Her childhood reading habit led her to consider her future career. However, after consulting with her parents, she realized she had already exceeded hobbit height and since fairies and dragonslayers were tricky jobs to get, she decided she wanted to create worlds of her own. She started writing poetry in elementary school and worked as a journalist in high school and college, but could never leave her love for writing fiction behind.

She is a graduate of Westminster College where she double majored in communication and sociology. She has worked as a journalist, freelance writer, and director of communications and marketing. She loves classic cars, traveling, and escaping in a good book. She lives in Utah with her incredibly supportive husband and their five-pound Pomeranian, Pippin, whose following of fangirls could rival Justin Bieber’s.

Eternal Starling is her debut novel and the first book in the Emblem of Eternity trilogy.

Website / Facebook / Goodreads

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Excerpt and Giveaway: The Funny Adventures of Little Nani by Cinta Garcia de la Rosa

For those of you who are still children at heart, or have a child in the family, here is a very cute recommendation!

Title: The Funny Adventures of Little Nani
Author: Cinta Garcia de la Rosa
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Synopsis

Little Nani is a little girl who likes helping people. However, when she helps people the results can be a bit unexpected. Why is that? Little Nani is a witch! Or at least she wants to be a witch. With her magic wand, she will try to cast different spells to help her friends, but she won’t be successful all the time. Follow Little Nani in her funny adventures and meet her extraordinary friends. Funny ostriches, horses that love reading, super-fast turtles, grumpy zombies… Little Nani has lots of friends! You can also draw your own characters! Little Nani is willing to become a good witch. Will she manage to do it? Who knows? Read the stories and discover what happens next!

Excerpt

“I’m bored!”

“How can you say that you are bored when I am reading to you one of the funniest books I have read in a long time?” said Horse in an exasperated tone. When Little Nani shrugged her shoulders,

Horse had retreated to his favourite rocking chair in a corner of the room.

“Can I go out and make angels?” asked Little Nani, who was upside down, standing on her hands.

“Don’t be silly. You can only make angels in the snow, not in the rain,” said Horse without raising his eyes from the book.

“Can I go out and jump in the pools?” asked Little Nani, who was hopscotching all over the room.

“If you go out you will get soaking wet, and then you will catch a bad cold, and then you won’t be able to go out for a long time,” said the impatient horse. He didn’t like being interrupted while reading.

“Then I will cast a spell to make the sun come back,” said Little Nani, trying to take her magic wand out of her pocket while rolling on the floor. Big Billy, watching her efforts to take her magic wand out, and  fearing that Little Nani could make the rain turn into a tempest, quickly pecked Little Nani’s hand.

“Ouch!” exclaimed Little Nani. “That hurt!”

She tried once more to take her magic wand from her pocket, but this time it was Skinny Nikki who pecked Little Nani’s hand.

“Ouch!” exclaimed Little Nani again. It was pretty clear by now to Little Nani that she wasn’t going to have any fun that day. She thought that the rain was boring and, folding her arms with an angry look,  she sat down in a corner.

About the Author

Cinta Garcia de la Rosa is a Spanish writer who has loved the written word since she discovered she was able to read books at age 5. Since then, she has become a bookworm and reads around 100 books every year. She also writes, every day, compulsively, even in the middle of the night. You cannot control when inspiration hits you, can you? She writes in English because she is convinced that in a previous life she was British, so writing in English feels more natural to her than writing in her native language. Yes, she is crazy like that. Cinta Garcia is the author of "The Funny Adventures of Little Nani", a collection of short stories for children, and "A Foreigner in London", a short story published on Smashwords. 

Author Links:

Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Tumblr / Blog / Website

Giveaway (INT)

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Ebook Giveaway ~ Sia by Josh Grayson

Sia by Josh Grayson 

Publication date: November 20th 2013 

Genres: Contemporary, YA

Synopsis:

When seventeen-year-old Sia wakes up on a park bench, she has no idea who or where she is. Yet after a week of being homeless, she’s reunited with her family. At school, she’s powerful and popular. At home, she’s wealthy beyond her dreams. But she quickly realizes her perfect life is a lie. Her family is falling apart and her friends are snobby, cruel and plastic. Worse yet, she discovers she was the cruelest one. Mortified by her past, she embarks on a journey of redemption and falls for Kyle, the “geek” she once tormented. Yet all the time she wonders if, when her memories return, she’ll become the bully she was before…and if she’ll lose Kyle.

Goodreads

Random Q&A with author Josh Grayson

What is one silly fact about you? 

I can mimic Enrique Iglesias’s voice pretty well. I sang “Hero” at a friend’s birthday party once and received an enthusiastic response. Some applauded, others laughed. Overall, though, I felt good about my performance. 

Why do you choose to write clean/sweet romance? 

I don’t choose, per se. I just write whatever I see in my head. And so far, all the romantic parts have been sweet and clean, which is fine with me. 

Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader? 

One reviewer said, “It, without a doubt, inspired me to find ways to help others in need. I’m looking into charity work.” I loved hearing that, because that’s exactly what I wanted Sia to do: to motivate others to become their best self, to make positive changes in the world, wherever they are. 

What inspired you to write Sia? 

Initially? Oprah. (laughs). I saw an interview she did on a man with fugue amnesia that impacted me. Fugue amnesia occurs when someone, usually in response to excessive stress, takes off on some unexpected travel. And during the travels, that person assumes either a partial or complete new identity. I found it both fascinating and frightening to think that stress alone can cause the human brain to demand a reset like that. I often wonder why I haven’t gotten fugue amnesia yet! 

Is it true you wrote the screenplay adaption as well? 

Yes! I wrote it as soon as the book was finished. I’m about to hire a seasoned Hollywood screenwriter to polish it. When it is up to industry standards, we’ll submit it to film companies and cross our fingers. I think Sia would translate wonderfully to film. 

If you could sum your main character into five words, what would they be? 

Determined. Compassionate. Humble. Kind. Brave. 

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book? 

Because I believe it will leave you touched, encouraged, and—of course—entertained.

Author Bio

Josh Grayson was born in Mexico, raised in Massachusetts, and now lives in Martinsville, Virginia. It was his move to the South that stirred his imagination and gave him the courage to start writing. During his free time, Josh enjoys reading, jogging, swimming, and watching YouTube videos.

Josh currently works as a medical driver, shuttling people all over Virginia and North Carolina. He has also worked as a machinist, film sales rep, administrative assistant, and telemarketer (he apologizes if he called you).

Sia is his debut YA novel.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Excerpt and Giveaway ♥ American Girl on Saturn

I fell in love with this book from the first time I saw it, so I knew I have to share it with you guys. Check out the synopsis and the except below, and if you like the sound of it, don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of this post!

American Girl On Saturn

by Nikki Godwin

Release Date: 08/24/13

Summary from Goodreads: 

The summer after graduation is supposed to be that first real taste of freedom - but not for eighteen-year-old Chloe Branson. Just as that breeze of freedom is making its way into her galaxy, her secret-service-agent dad drops a meteor-sized bomb of bad news on her and her sisters. An attempt has been made on the lives of Canadian boyband, Spaceships Around Saturn, during their USA tour, and the guys have to go into hiding ASAP. The only problem? In the midst of the crisis and media frenzy, their dad volunteered to hide the guys...in their house.

Six-year-old Emery is as ecstatic as any self-proclaimed Saturnite would be, but Chloe and her seventeen-year-old sister Aralie watch their summer plans crash and burn like a falling star. The SAS guys aren't happy with the situation, either. Bad boy Jules picks fights with Aralie about everything from his Twitter followers to his laundry, and heart-throb Benji can't escape Emery's fangirlisms for more than three minutes.

But after the super-cute Milo kisses Chloe during a game of hide-and-seek, she finally understands what Emery means when she talks about SAS being "out of this world." If this is what Saturn feels like, Chloe doesn't want to come back to Earth.

Excerpt

Mom enters the kitchen and shreds away all of my half-courage. 

“Chloe, sweetheart, I need to talk to you,” she says. 

There’s not a single social event I can think of that I may need to cancel today. No parties. No festivals. No lunch dates. Maybe Aralie had something planned, and I have to do damage control. 

“This is really hard for me to say, but Ms. Sue called me this morning,” she says. 

Who in the world is Ms. Sue?

“She said you stopped by their store last night,” Mom continues. “She wasn’t trying to rat you out, but she was very concerned and wanted me to be aware of what was going on.”

Oh God. The cigarettes! I ease over a few steps and look into the dining room. Jules stares back at me, wide-eyed and stupid. Then he looks away and buries his face. Noah hits Jules’s arm, and Jules motions for them to shut up. He’s seriously going to let me take the fall for this! I turn my back to the dining room because I have to keep my composure through this, and seeing Jules Rossi right now is not helping my composure.

“Chloe, I know things have been rough these last few months,” Mom says. It’s the sympathy tone. “But smoking isn’t the answer. If you need to talk to someone, you can always come to me or Dad or even Godfrey. Or we can pay for therapy sessions.”

“Mom, I’m not smoking,” I insist. “And I don’t need therapy. I’m completely fine. Really.”

She tilts her head and studies me like she did on graduation night, while she cried because her baby was all grown up. She has those same worried eyes now that she had when she talked about setting her baby bird out to fly on her own. Please, Mom. Don’t call me a baby bird while 3/5 of SAS is listening. 

“Sweetheart,” she says. “I just know you went through a lot with that break up, and seeing Deacon the other day couldn’t have made things any easier, especially when he acted like he did. I know you had big plans this summer, and I wish things could’ve gone as planned.”

“I’m okay, Mom,” I say through my teeth.

“Then why were you buying cigarettes, Chloe? Ms. Sue wouldn’t just make that up,” she says. 

Her voice pleads with me, like she’s truly heartbroken and worried. She doesn’t even seem mad about it. I don’t know who this Ms. Sue woman is or where she was hiding at that service station, but damn her all the way across the universe for running her big freaking mouth. 

“They were for me.” The voice is directly behind me.

But it’s not Jules.

About the Author

Nikki Godwin is a YA author from the southern USA. She is a city girl who can't live without Mountain Dew, black eyeliner, Hawthorne Heights, and candles from Bath & Body Works. When not writing, she's not-so-secretly internet-stalking her favorite bands. She is slightly obsessed with rock stars and surfers. She no longer hides her love for One Direction.

***Author Links***

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

***GIVEAWAY***

1 signed paperback + swag (US only)

3 e-book copies (INTL)

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Excerpt and Giveaway: The Emblazoned Red by Dawn McCullough-White

Synopsis:

Once, in another world—a dark world, the world of Faetta—there lived paladins and pirates, tyrants and scallywags, vampires and the undead. In this world a revolution is brewing. The royalty of Sieunes are in chains, and those priests and paladins who follow the holy word of the gods are under attack. In the west, the kingdom of Kellerhald receives the fleeing priests in their temples of the paladins of Silvius, god of the Sky.

Here, a young woman has just passed her tests to become a paladin. A pirate crew raids along the Azez Sea. An undead creature, wielding great power, roams the graveyard of Yetta. And a lost soul, crying out from beyond the veil, seeks out a pure hearted warrior to hear its plea.

Amid the turmoil of the revolution, Ilka’s mettle is tested. Rescued by pirates, she ends up with an unlikely ally: the pirate captain himself. The newly trained paladin finds herself collaborating with the undead, working with a vampire, and worst of all, longing for revenge against the man who has ignited the revolution in Sieunes: Francois Mond... 

"Death of an Innocent. Rise of a Paladin."

 

Excerpt: 

"Beautiful Rhiannon ..." he sighed, and sank his fangs into her neck, pressing her body down onto the pile of dead flowers atop her son's grave. 

He had been following her around the streets of Lockenwood for a good month. He had begun following the moment he had caught sight of her lithe body and her bright red hair. Sometimes he'd sit on top of a roof and just watch as she shopped or left work at night. As he got more daring, he'd slip inside the tavern where she worked, losing himself in the hot, dirty crowd within. His cold, hard body was shoved along through the crowd: peasants, villains, beggars. The poor and the evildoers all jam-packed within the smoke-stained tavern. And there was Rhiannon, fetching swill for each of them.

All of his efforts in the last month were now at their end. They reached the final climax with her death.

Augustine released her limp form and laid her down to rest with her dead baby, and then he sighed because it had come too soon. He had been longing to talk to her, that's where this generally went. He wanted to get to know her a little before her inevitable death. Wanted to know who she was, what she thought, and what she thought of him. Perhaps he could've eased her sorrows for a time ... but then, of course, the lust for her blood would've gotten the better of him, and he'd have had to kill her. But still, this was basically a wasted month.

About the Author:

Dawn McCullough White is known for her strong female protagonists, and gritty dark fantasy.

Ms. McCullough-White has lived the majority of her life in and around Rochester, NY with a brief stint in Tucson, AZ. She is pursuing a degree in psychology at R.I.T. Dawn is a history buff and was a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism for years, active as a heavy weapons fighter. She currently resides with her husband and son in a quaint neighborhood next to an old cemetery. 

Facebook / Personal Website

Giveaway (Open INT) 

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Book Blast! My Own Mr. Darcy by Karey White

My Own Mr. Darcy

After being dragged to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice by her mother, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth’s life changes when Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy appears on the screen. Lizzie falls hard and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy. This ill-advised pledge threatens to ruin any chance of finding true love. During the six intervening years, she has refused to give any interested suitors a chance. They weren’t Mr. Darcy enough.

Coerced by her roommate, Elizabeth agrees to give the next interested guy ten dates before she dumps him. That guy is Chad, a kind and thoughtful science teacher and swim coach. While she’s dating Chad, her dream comes true in the form of a wealthy bookstore owner named Matt Dawson, who looks and acts like her Mr. Darcy. Of course she has to follow her dream. But as Elizabeth simultaneously dates a regular guy and the dazzling Mr. Dawson, she’s forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place. 

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Amazon Kindle

Author Karey White Karey White grew up in Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Missouri. She attended Ricks College and Brigham Young University. Her first novel, Gifted, was a Whitney Award Finalist. She loves to travel, read, bake treats, and spend time with family and friends. She and her husband are the parents of four great children. She teaches summer creative writing courses to young people and is currently working on her next book. 

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads

Tour Schedule

 

BookBlast Giveaway $50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 10/4/13 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 http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. 

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Excerpt and Ebook Giveaway ~ Life, Love, & Lemons

Life, Love, & Lemons by Magan Vernon 

Publication date: August 20th 2013 

Genre: YA Contemporary

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.

Goodreads / Amazon

Check out this lovely excerpt! 

From Monday to Friday it was like everything had changed. Instead of walking through the halls alone with my head down, Kai was always by my side. This, of course, led to some very interesting stares and nicknames from people. I think my favorites were Bonnie and Hyde or Sid and Nancy Drew. Anything people could think of to come up with a couple name for the punk kid and the preppy girl. There were others, but the East High kids could get pretty raunchy when they came up with some of these nicknames. 

“Do you still want to go watch Grant and Brody’s band play on Saturday?” 

It was that lull after I had fourth period gym class and before lunch. I was leaning against my locker, and Kai pressed his palm against the other locker and faced me. 

I still wasn’t sure what to think of Grant and Brody. They were nice and all, but I always felt like they were gawking at me like I was some sort of a zoo exhibit. 

“I don’t know, maybe.” 

The truth was that I already asked my parents about the concert. Mom just rolled her eyes and couldn’t believe that her daughter wanted to go to some crummy warehouse to sweat with a bunch of teenagers, but Dad was a little more interested. Just by asking about the concert hosted a whole slew of questions about the bands and who I was going with. I especially got nervous when he started asking questions about Kai. 

“What do you mean maybe?” He asked as he ran his tongue over his lip ring. We still hadn’t kissed. I was pretty adamant about the whole not kissing until he was my boyfriend thing. But I couldn’t deny how much I thought about his lip ring. 

“I mean, maybe I’m busy or something." I twirled a strand of hair around my fingertip. 

“What? Are you going out with one of your other boyfriends or something that night?" He leaned in closer. A couple of jocks walked by and yelled some disgusting comment, but I pretended like I didn’t hear them. 

“I don’t have any boyfriends at all, so I really wouldn’t be going out with any of them, now would I?" I batted my eyelashes. 

“Why don’t you be my girlfriend then?” He traced his free hand down my arm, full-on putting on the charm. 

“Maybe," I answered very quickly, almost too quickly, since he blinked really hard. 

“What do you mean, maybe?” He tilted his head to the side and he reached down to grab my hand. 

“Ew, get a room." A very tall girl with fiery red hair and cat’s eye glasses yelled and then walked over to us. 

“Teegan, if you think that hand holding is bad, then you really need to get out more,” Kai quipped, quickly looking from me to Teegan. 

“Oh, I saw plenty of that with you and Brynne. Remember I’m her band mate,” Teegan snarled and walked closer. “But when it’s with little Miss Sandra Dee, it’s kind of disgusting.” She giggled and headed over to a group of girls a few lockers away. Once I caught sight of the group I immediately saw Brynne’s big green eyes glaring in my direction. 

“Do you really want to have to keep dealing with that every day? The weird vampire girls and jocks talking about us? Because that’s what you’re going to get,” I said, looking up at him. My cheeks were still hot after Teegan’s comment and I hoped I didn’t look too embarrassed. 

He laced our fingers together. “I wouldn’t be still standing here if I didn’t want to be with you." He looked from our hands and back down to me. “Now what do you say, will you be my girlfriend?” 

“Maybe." I smiled again. 

He started to roll his eyes when I got up on my tippy toes placing my hands on the back of his neck. I slowly pulled him closer as our lips met for the first time. I couldn’t believe how warm and rough his lips were in contrast to the cold and smoothness of his lip ring. Nor could I believe all the people that were cheering as he pulled me closer to fully envelope himself in the kiss. I didn’t want it to end and swear I literally almost melted in his arms when I felt his tongue on my bottom lip. 

A large hand thrusted between us, knocking our bodies apart. I got off of my tippy toes and quickly let go of Kai as I turned to see my gym teacher, Mr. Brown, with his large and quite furry hand placed firmly in the middle of me and Kai. He faced Kai with his spit-stained mustache. 

“Handshake, Mr. Stone." He took Kai’s hand from mind and shook it senseless. “Handshake!”

Author Bio

Magan Vernon is a YA and NA 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.

Author Links:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Giveaway!

• 1 (one) ebook copy
• open internationally
• must be 13 or older to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blast! Working It Out by Rachael Renee Anderson

 Working It Out 

A chance encounter . . . 

Grace Warren's life is safe and predictable—exactly the way she likes it. But when she gets roped into going to an auction to help out a friend, everything changes. She meets Seth Tuttle—a guy who unexpectedly kisses her then disappears, leaving her flustered and upset. If she never sees him again, it will be too soon.

A chance for love . . . 

Weeks later, when Seth limps into Grace's rehab clinic post surgery, she immediately recognizes him. Unfortunately, he's every bit as frustrating and annoying as she remembered. Yet there's something about him that makes her second-guess her carefully placed boundaries even though he's everything she's sure she doesn't want in a man. But maybe Seth is exactly what Grace has needed all along—assuming she's willing to risk safe and predictable for a chance at love. 

Amazon * Amazon Kindle

Author Rachael Renee Anderson

Rachael Anderson is the author of four books: Divinely Designed, Luck of the Draw, Minor Adjustments, and The Reluctant Bachelorette. She’s the mother of four and is pretty good at breaking up fights, or at least sending guilty parties to their rooms. She can’t sing, doesn’t dance, and despises tragedies. But she recently figured out how yeast works and can now make homemade bread, which she is really good at eating.

Blog * Facebook * Twitter

Book Blast Special Price Drop!

Grab a copy of Working it Out for just $2.99!

 

 BookBlast Giveaway $50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 9/6/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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 http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Creatura Spotlight & Ebook giveaway

How long have you been waiting to read Creatura? Now this is the chance to grab an ebook copy! Thanks to Nely Cab and Xpresso Book Tours for the chance to be part of this book blitz. <3

Creatura by Nely Cab 

Publication date: August 6th, 2013

Genre: YA Paranormal
Goodreads ~ Amazon

Synopsis

Isis can control her dreams. Or she could-until recently. The creature in her nightmares has been haunting her for months. As if being dumped wasn’t bad enough, now she dreads going to sleep. She decides to confront the creature and win back some of her peace; only, she finds that he’s not a monster and he’s not a dream.

A sacrifice for love, a shocking discovery and a jealous ex-boyfriend blur the lines between reality and dreams, making it hard to tell who the real monsters are.

Who would’ve known…that sometimes love is lethal?

Author Bio

Nely Cab was born on December 9, 1974, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She has lived and resided in a small, quiet South Texas town most of her life. Putting her Computer Accounting skills to use, Nely worked in banking for several years. In 2001, the author relocated to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where she dedicated time to the study of culinary arts and the art of oil painting. After her return to the U.S., Nely resumed her employment in banking and later transitioned to the field of Social Work.

Today, Nely Cab writes from the comfort of her home, where she lives with her husband and son. Her life goal is to check-off Bucket List Item No. 95,623,351: To conquer the world. While she aspires world domination, Nely continues to work on her debut series Creatura.

Links:

Website ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Giveaway!

• 1 (one) ebook copy
• open internationally
• must be 13 or older to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beat the Heat Great Alaska Tank Top Contest

Is everyone excited for Reading Season?! Tank tops, flip flops, sunshine, and books. Does it get any better?

How about a trip to the Far North to kick some vampire butt?! Unless you happen to be crushing on a particular fanged foe. Oops. Is that against the rules?

WIN!

Now through August 15th

When you display the 'Beat the Heat' Aurora Sky button on your blog and/or Facebook, link back to the Aurora Sky page, Aurora Sky at goodreads, Aurora Sky on Amazon US, Amazon UK, on Nook, or on Kobo.

Ladies tank comes in size sm-xl. If the winner chooses a size that ends up not fitting, she will need to cover return shipping & sending costs for a size exchange. The prize will be mailed directly from Once in a Blue Moose gifts out of Anchorage.  a Rafflecopter giveaway

This contest brought to you by:

The most butt-kicking street team on the blogsophere.

Creatura Cover Reveal + Giveaway

După cum v-am mai spus sau ați auzit, Creatura urmează să fie relansată în străinătate cu o copertă nouă și câteva modificări privind conținutul. Astăzi  a fost dezvăluită în sfârșit noua copertă. Eu una mă bucur că la noi a rămas coperta veche, totuși trebuie să recunosc că și aceasta e genială. ♥ Voi ce părere aveți?

Creatura by Nely Cab
Paperback, 346 pages
Publisher: Nely Cab
Language: English
This Title is Available for Pre-order on Amazon: link

BOOK COVER:

COMING AUGUST 6, 2013

BLURB:

Isis can control her dreams. Or she could—until recently. The creature in her nightmares has been haunting her for months. As if being dumped wasn’t bad enough, now she dreads going to sleep. She decides to confront the creature and win back some of her peace; only, she finds that he’s not a monster and he’s not a dream.

A sacrifice for love, a shocking discovery and a jealous ex-boyfriend blur the lines between reality and dreams, making it hard to tell who the real monsters are.

Who would’ve known…that sometimes love is lethal?

AUTHOR BIO

Nely Cab was born on December 9, 1974, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She has lived and resided in South Texas most of her life. In 2001, the author relocated to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where she dedicated time to the study of culinary arts and the art of oil painting.

After her return to the U.S., she resumed her employment in banking and in the following year transitioned to the field of Social Work. Later, Nely took up writing as a hobby and produced her first novel entitled "Creatura".

Last year, the rights to "Creatura" were sold to a leading YA publisher in a foreign country, where it has just recently been released.

Today, Nely Cab writes from the comfort of her home in South Texas, where she lives with her husband and son. Currently, Nely is working on the second installment in her debut series "Creatura".

Website * FB Page * FB Author Page * Twitter * Goodreads * Blog * Google+ * Amazon Page

Giveaway (open to international entries)

• Signed Creatura ARC by Nely Cab
• Signed Creatura postcard and bookmark
• Signed Creatura bookmark

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post and Giveaway ♥ The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble

This post is part of the 2013 Summer Author Promo Blitz, organized by Books and Broomsticks. Click on the image below to discover other fantastic authors and enter their awesome giveaways!

Today I am hosting lovely author Joy Preble and her newest book, The Sweet Dead Life. She wrote a guest post on her book and she is also having a great giveaway in celebration. Make sure you check this book out and, if you like the sound of it, enter the Rafflecopter below!

The Sweet Dead Life

by Joy Preble

“I found out two things today. One, I think I’m dying. And two, my brother is a perv.”

So begins the diary of 14-year-old Jenna Samuels, who is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs— difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead.

Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious depression and father’s disappearance.

Goodreads * Amazon

THE SWEET DEAD LIFE: A Texas Makeover of the Angel Book

Joy Preble

THE SWEET DEAD LIFE (Soho Press) is a different type of angel tale, narrated by fourteen- year-old Jenna, as tough as she is sentimental, trying to figure out why the universe has sent her stoner brother back as her guardian angel. Her brother Casey—more reluctant-(stoned)-hero-guzzling-Mountain-Dew-and-making-(high)-late-night-runs-for-Jack-in-the-Box-tacos than ripped-hottie-with-girls-falling-at-his-feet—has bitten the dust driving Jenna to the hospital. A mystery ensues, part of which has already been underway before the novel opens. Where did Jenna and Casey’s dad disappear to five years ago? Why can their mom barely get out of bed? And now, who has been poisoning Jenna and why? It is a mystery as much as it is a sibling tale. As Booklist comments, “There’s a whole lot going on here: poisonings, blackmail, sibling relationships, romance, and abandonment, in addition to angels, but the unifying thread is Jenna’s clever, bitter, self-aware, and loving voice.”

Yeah, I was pretty thrilled about that review, especially since they went on to observe: “Preble’s lively descriptions and unusually well-drawn, caring sibling relationship (a topic not usually explored in teen fiction) are especially noteworthy.”

Which gets me to the other thing that makes THE SWEET DEAD LIFE different. This is an angel book without a central romance sparking the action. I’ll quote Kirkus reviews for this: “Hallelujah! A paranormal tale of angels that’s not a romance, making it a novel that breaks the mold.”

Was I nervous about that? Not really. I believe that you need to tell the story that needs telling, and this first book in the series (The sequel, THE A WORD, arrives from Soho Press in May 2014) establishes the over-arching global mystery that will carry throughout the books, sets up a story about a brother and sister taking care of each other in dire albeit sometimes darkly comic circumstances, and establishes the Texas world—specifically, the northern suburbs of Houston— in which it takes place. Romance is a part, but it’s not the main part. That will come in the sequel, where Jenna gets her first boyfriend!

I really love writing Jenna and Casey! I hope my readers find their sibling relationship both authentic and humorous. In my own life, I’m the first born, but I think if I did have an older brother, I would want someone like Casey, faults and all. Because despite everything that he has given up—and continues to give up—he is there for Jenna no matter what. Of course, in book two next year, Jenna has to navigate her first romance with her guardian angel brother looking over her shoulder every second. Not exactly every girl’s dream!

So THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, does, as Kirkus observes, ‘break the mold.’ It is the angel book, Houston, Texas style: Kolaches and cowboy boots and breakfast tacos. The chain store/ mall culture that is a large part of the sometimes wastelands of the northern suburbs. Friday night Texas high school football and marching bands. What better place to have angels walking—looking just like your pot head next door neighbor. Only not exactly. A brother and sister solving a growing set of mysteries. And guiding it all is Jenna’s sarcastic and worldly-wise voice, but also her innocence.

This post

I hope this makes everyone want to read THE SWEET DEAD LIFE! Thanks for inviting me to the blog today.

Raluca: I loved having you over! Thank you for the chance!

Giveaway

• signed copy of The Sweet Dead Life(US)
• swag pack (INT)
• ebook copy (INT)

Rules:

• 3 winners (one for each prize)
• must be 13+ to enter or have your parents' permission
• winning entries will be checked for accuracy

a Rafflecopter giveaway