Showing posts with label blog tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog tour. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Blog Tour (Review): We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach


We All Looked Up 
by Tommy Wallach

Genre: YA, contemporary
Published March 26th 2015 by Simon & Schuster UK
Source: Tour host
Purchase: Amazon * Barnes and Noble * Book Depository
Local order/purchase: Fully Booked * National Bookstore


Blurb (Goodreads):
Before the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels:
The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. 

But then we all looked up and everything changed. 

They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end. 

Two months to really live.





My Thoughts:

We All Looked Up was a story of four teenagers whose lives was changed by an asteroid called Ardor that will hit the Earth in two months, which will cause "end of the world". From that simple yet fresh premise I can already see myself engaged in this book. And I was right.

There's Peter, the athlete. I like that Peter isn't afraid of what a higher person says. On some novels, it bothered me how negatively [teen] characters react towards "shrinks", counseling, or the truth. I like Peter's open-mindedness, and the book. Eliza, the outcast, was a distant girl before but after history with Peter, became the S-word. Andy, the slacker, who cares about nothing--except getting laid (at last) before Ardor would either make or break the world. He had the most character improvement and I liked it very much. Anita, is an overachiever and talented singer. She's different from the rest--like, good girl and all--but I'm glad she didn't turned out a bore. There were a lot of different wisdom, sayings, realizations on every character. It gave the book more depth and edge but not in an overly dramatic way.

This book plainly shows how people would act/what would happen if the end of the world is coming and how judging people by mere appearances/labels isn't fair and untrue. This book is wild and reckless and liberated and quite heartbreaking in the end. It's about self-discovery, forgiveness, love, chances, hope, romantic and family relationships, and finding the real friend. One of the most real thing I've read this year. Readers of any genre would appreciate this as well.

Here's also a quote I got from the book that left a mark:
The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world. - page 11


*Thank you so much Pinoy Book Tours for lending a review copy in exchange of an honest review!

Rating:







Sunday, June 7, 2015

Blog Tour (Interview): Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen

Welcome to the Hidden Huntress blog tour!
I was supposed to have my post on June 4th but because I've been pre-occupied for the entire week,
I missed it. Apologies for that! But hey, that doesn't mean party's cancelled, aye?


Hidden Huntress 
by Danielle L. Jensen

Series: The Malediction Trilogy #2
Genre: YA, fantasy, romance
Published June 2nd 2015 by Angry Robot
Local purchase: Fully Booked * National Bookstore

Blurb (Goodreads):
Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.

Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king’s power. Or his manipulation.

Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeeds or fails, the costs to those she cares about will be high.

To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted…








1. What kind of alternative characters would they be, if Malediction trilogy characters weren’t trolls?

I can’t really imagine them being anything other than what they are at this point, but I think the heart of your question is whether I considered calling them something other than trolls. As I was drafting Stolen Songbird, I did consider giving them a made-up name, but eventually decided against it. The word troll has meaning to most people, and I was able to play with those preconceptions in a way I wouldn’t have been able to with a made-up word. How interested would you be in the book if the back cover had read like this:

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the kermuffins to their city beneath the mountain…. the kermuffins are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong… the more time she spends with the kermuffins, the more she understands their plight. 

Kermuffin doesn’t mean anything to anyone, so I don’t think it would have done as good a job of catching the eyes of readers as troll did. As well, I did have the larger picture in mind as to the trolls’ origins, which many readers have already picked up on.  

2. Which is harder to write, the first of a series, or the sequel?

Hidden Huntress was much more challenging. 

3. Are there any unexpected reactions/happenings after Stolen Songbird?

I never dreamed of having such an enormously positive response to the novel, and it still seems surreal when people tell me how much they connected with my characters. Having Stolen Songbird make it into the finals of the Goodreads Choice awards blew my mind, because it was entirely driven by readers, which is much more meaningful to me than a judged award. 

4. Who's your favorite character to write?

In Hidden Huntress, I really enjoyed writing scenes with Tristan’s father, King Thibault. There is a lot of depth to his character that wasn’t revealed in Stolen Songbird, and it was really fun to unpack it for readers. 

5. Do you have any *secret* projects as of now?

I have a YA epic fantasy that I’ve been working on for many years, but I’m currently focused on Malediction 3. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to share my secret project with readers!

6. What are the differences between the journey to publishing of Stolen Songbird and Hidden Huntress?

When I was drafting Stolen Songbird, the only opinion influencing my work was my own. When I was drafting Hidden Huntress, I was very much aware of what readers did or didn’t like about Stolen Songbird, and for several months, I tried to factor in those opinions as I wrote. And encountered total writer’s block. What I realized was that I needed to write the book that I’d want to read, because trying to please thousands of people with diverse opinions was impossible. 

7. What should we expect from Hidden Huntress?

Hidden Huntress is a darker, broodier novel with a slower build than its predecessor. I think people looking for expanded world-building will be pleased, and those who liked the intrigue of Stolen Songbird will enjoy the chapters from Tristan’s point of view. And for those of you looking for romance, have no fear – I’d never neglect you!


***


About the Author

Danielle was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in finance. But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination.








Thank you so much Angry Robot Books for this opportunity and to Danielle L. Jensen for the Q&A!
You can also check out my review for the book one, Stolen Songbird.








Thursday, May 28, 2015

Blog Tour (Review + Giveaway): Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry

Welcome to the Philippine blog tour of Katie McGarry's newest novel, Nowhere But Here! Check out my thoughts about the book below and a giveaway!
Tour schedule here.


Nowhere But Here 
by Katie McGarry

Series: Thunder Road #1
Genre: YA, contemporary, romance
Published May 26th 2015 by Harlequin Teen
Source: Publisher
Local order/purchase: Fully Booked * National Bookstore

Blurb (Goodreads):
An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible.

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. 

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. 

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home.






My Thoughts:

*This review is based on advanced reading copy. There might be some changes with the finished copy.

I am familiar with Katie McGarry's writing style even though I've only read one book from her (Pushing The Limits) and reading Nowhere But Here is both familiar and  new. Nowhere But Here, like PTL, has major issues, hot romance, but it has more angst that it turned out to be more mature.

Being not personally and emotionally attached to her biological father, Emily doesn't care or even interested to get to know him or his family more even though she doesn't have choice by having a "vacation" with them. I saw how she hates her father for leaving them and to his family when they don't want her and her mother. She's a little brat towards these people but turns out to be understandable because of how she sees them. What she didn't know is that in this vacation opportunity will she find out the truth about her and her parents' past. I like that she didn't remained as she was on the beginning. She had character improvements which is really good.

Oz has one goal in life: to be part of Rein of Terror, a motorcycle club he's looking up for all his life. But when Emily arrived, trouble followed their lives. Oz is your typical bad-boy-got-soft-side kind of guy. He's all man (and hot) as described by Emily, he rides motorcycle and wants to be part of a club with 'Terror' in their name, but he cares deeply for his family and also kids.

Nowhere But Here deals mostly about the truth (or finding out about it) and family. Integrity. It also has hot romance in a Katie McGarry kind of way. There were only little info about the motorcycle clubs compared to I was expecting. It only kind of stated the facts but wasn't shown greatly in the book, they are all names and patches and leather black jackets but nothing major happened. Except they danced around the truths and lies.

I like Nowhere But Here because it shows the importance and beauty-ness of [having] family despite how at some points they become untrue. I like how from nothing, there came love and caring between the characters and how almost everyone grew and matured. The romance was undeniably hot and with chemistry but I feel like it lacks foundation. Maybe because the physical attraction came first than the getting-to-know-each-other. Anyway, Katie McGarry fans would love this. And if you haven't read anything from her, you give this a try and fall in love in the process as well!



*Thank you so much Harlequin UK for the review copy in exchange of an honest review!

Rating:









GIVEAWAY!
- ARC of Nowhere But Here
- open to PH residents only







Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Blog Tour + Giveaway: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius




Love Fortunes and Other Disasters 
by Kimberly Karalius

Genre: YA, contemporary, romance
Expected publication: May 12th 2015 by Swoon Reads
Local order/purchase: Fully Booked * National Bookstore

Blurb (Goodreads):
In the tradition of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, one girl chooses to change her fortune and her fate by falling in love.

Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love.

Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.

Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?





***

About the Author
If you gave her a wish bone, Kimberly would wish fervently for snow in Florida. Her love for 90s cartoons (or any cartoons, really) knows no bounds. She might be the only person you know who can be completely engrossed in watching silent films. Being in Florida certainly has one big perk: going to Disney World. Which she does. Frequently. 

Kimberly holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Luna Station Quarterly, The Medulla Review, and Hogglepot. Her chapbook, POCKET FOREST, was published by Deathless Press in August 2013.

LOVE FORTUNES AND OTHER DISASTERS (Swoon Reads/Macmillan May 2015) is her debut novel.





GIVEAWAY!
- a copy of Love Fortunes and Other Disasters
- open to US only (publisher rules, sorry!)
- ends May 23rd
- the author, publisher, or I are not responsible for any lost or damaged package
- when you choose to enter the every day entries, please enter different infos every day
- be honest, I always check
- winner will have 48 hours to respond on email notification. If failed, I'll choose another winner











Monday, April 6, 2015

Blog Tour (Excerpt + Giveaway): Captive by Brighton Walsh

Stopping for today for a blog tour is a NA romance from Brighton Walsh, Captive!


Captive 
by Brighton Walsh

Series: Captive #1
Genre: NA, contemporary, romance
Published March 24th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin
Local purchase/order: Fully Booked * National Bookstore

Blurb (Goodreads):
He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…and she’s falling in love with him.

Madison Frost is desperate to escape her life. Daughter of a prominent businessman, she has everything a girl could ask for. Except for a family who’s present in her life, and anyone to talk to outside the four walls of the prison she calls home. Madison dreams of one day leaving her life behind. She never thought being kidnapped is how it would happen.

Now she’s being held captive by a man who’s as frightening as he is sinfully gorgeous. Enormous, muscular, and filled with secrets, the man they call Ghost is an enigmatic mercenary, and Madison is trapped with him. She doesn’t know who hired him or why, but the more time she spends at his mercy, the more she realizes he’s not what he seems. Beneath his rough exterior lies an unexpected gentleness and a heart as broken and battered as her own.

But as Madison lets down her walls, Ghost holds tight to his, hiding secrets that could destroy everything.





EXCERPT

     His  gaze  made  me nervous,  his eyes cold  and  hard,  ice-blue and unrelenting, and I wanted  nothing more  than  to close mine and hide.  I couldn’t do that, though. Covering my eyes and pretending he couldn’t see me would only leave me blind and vulnerable. I needed  to  learn everything  I could  about  him, because  I had  to  hope  that  one  day I’d be able to  use that  information to help the police catch him. I had to hope that someday,  I’d be free. 
     Mustering up all the courage  I could, I asked, “Have  you ever been to prison?” 
     “That’s  what you’d assume, isn’t it?” 
     Could  he blame me, really? Men like him didn’t frequent the streets of Kenilworth or Evanston. Sure, some of the guys on cam- pus had tattoos, some of them  even covering both arms, but  this man’s entire persona was so drastically different from any of them— from anyone  I’d ever met.  He  could  be stripped of the  ink completely, wearing khakis and a polo shirt, and I’d still feel terror  in his presence.  It wasn’t the trimmings on him, it was him, straight down  to his bones. 
     Without waiting  for me to utter  another word,  he said, “I’m too good  at what I do to get caught.” 
     That  was what I was worried  about.
     The  silence hung  in the  air for a few moments. Even when  I wasn’t looking  at him, I felt the weight  of his stare on me. Finally finding  my voice again, I asked, “What’s your name?” 
     He raised a single eyebrow at my question, but answered  anyway. “People  call me Ghost.” 
     The way he said it sent a shiver of fear racing up my spine, and I swallowed back the dread that’d  crept into my throat. “Why?”  
     His  eyes gleamed  as he  regarded me.  “Because  they  don’t know I’m there  till it’s too late.”

***


About the Author
Brighton Walsh spent nearly a decade as a professional photographer before deciding to take her storytelling in a different direction and reconnect with her first love: writing. When she’s not pounding away at the keyboard, she’s probably either reading or shopping—maybe even both at once. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and two children, and, yes, she considers forty degrees to be hoodie weather. Her home is the setting for frequent dance parties, Lego battles, and more laughter than she thought possible. 




GIVEAWAY!
- 1 copy of Captive
- open to US and Canada only
- contest ends April 20th
- winner must respond on email notification within 48 hours or I will be forced to pick another winner
- I or the publisher are not responsible for any lost or damaged package
- stay honest in order to make your entries valid!








Sunday, March 8, 2015

Blog Tour (Feature + Giveaway): A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schwab



Welcome, oh welcome, to my stop for A Darker Shade of Magic tour! I'm excited about this one because it's quite different from the tours I've been on. I am assigned on White London! Things you must check on this post: a one question answered by the author, the fantastic giveaway courtesy of Tor Books *wink, wink*, the book itself--and all the reasons why you should read this book!



Before anything else, I know you're curious.

What is White London? Why are there Red, White, and Grey Londons?

In A Darker Shade of Magic, Kell is one of the Travelers that flit through magical doors to visit three very different versions of London: Red London, White London, and Grey London. You can understand more about these three very different versions of London and the book itself below.

A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E Scwab

Series: A Darker Shade of Magic #1
Genre: Adult, fantasy, paranormal
Published February 24th 2015 by Tor Books
Local purchase/order: Fullybooked * National Bookstore

Blurb:
Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.

There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king—George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered—and where Kell was raised alongside Rhy Maresh, the roguish heir to a flourishing empire. White London—a please where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cutpurse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.





Praises for A Darker Shade of Magic
(Click to enlarge.)



My one question for V.E Schwab:
Describe A Darker Shade of Magic in one word that wasn't mentioned in the title or blurb.
"Ominous."



About the Author
V. E. SCHWAB's first adult novel, Vicious, debuted to critical praise and readeraccolades. Schwab is the author of YA novels The Near Witch, The Archived, and The Unbound, and the Everyday Angel series for middle grade readers. veschwab.wordpress.com. @VESchwab. Facebook. Goodreads.





***

GIVEAWAY!
- a copy of A Darker Shade of Magic AND a double-sided signed poster that features the US and UK covers!
- open internationally
- giveaway ends March 20th EXTENDING UNTIL MARCH 28TH!
- Tor Books and I are not responsible for lost or damaged packages
- stay honest with your entries--especially with daily entries. Make sure to enter a different info/link every day
- winner will have 48 hours to respond on the email notification or else, I'll be forced to pick another winner







***

Don't forget to follow the entire tour--which includes Red and Grey Londons, and other White London stops. Each participating blog has one question answered by Victoria and a separate giveaway! Ain't it cool?!
Tour schedule here.

Thank you so much Tor Books for this fun opportunity!