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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Release Day Blitz- ZERO REPEAT FOREVER by Gabrielle Prendergast & A Giveaway!




I am so excited that ZERO REPEAT FOREVER by Gabrielle Prendergast is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Gabrielle Prendergast, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a signed hardcover of the book courtesy of Gabrielle and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.


About The Book:
Title: ZERO REPEAT FOREVER
Author: Gabrielle Prendergast
Pub. Date: August 29, 2017
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 496
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Find it: AmazonB&NAudibleiBooksTBDGoodreads

He has no voice, or name, only a rank, Eighth. He doesn’t know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind.

Dart the humans. Leave them where they fall.

His job is to protect his Offside. Let her do the shooting.

Until a human kills her

Sixteen year-old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade, annihilating entire cities, taking control of the Earth. Isolated in the wilderness, Raven and her friends have only a fragment of instruction from the human resistance.

Shelter in place.

Which seems like good advice at first. Stay put. Await rescue. Raven doesn’t like feeling helpless but what choice does she have?

Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend.


Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear. But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other
 



Book Trailer:





About Gabrielle: 

Gabrielle is a writer, teacher and designer living in Vancouver, Canada.  You can read about her books here. She is represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.
In 2014 she was the Writer in Residence at Vancouver Public Library. In 2015 she was nominated for the BC Book Prizes and chosen to tour the province to promote BC Books. In 2017 Gabrielle took part in the TD Canada Children’s Book Week Tour. She has also been nominated for the White Pine Awardand the CLA Award.
Gabrielle won the Westchester Award for Audacious. Audacious was included in CBC’s list of 100 YA Books That Make You Proud to be Canadian. A poem from Capricious was chosen for the 2014 Poetry in Transit Program. Pandas on the East Side was chosen as an Ontario Library Association Best Bet for Junior Fiction in 2016. It was also nominated/shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Award, The Red Cedar Award, the Diamond Willow Award and the Myrca Award.






Giveaway Details:

(1) winner will receive a signed finished copy of ZERO REPEAT FOREVER, US Only & Canada.

(3) winners will receive signed postcards and bookmarks ZERO REPEAT FOREVER, US Only & Canada.

Ends on September 19th at Midnight EST!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 24, 2017

GlassesShop.com A great variety of prescription glasses and sunglasses at very affordable prices!



Hey All! I had an awesome opportunity to pick out a pair of new eyeglasses and review them. GlassesShop.com has great quality cheap glasses and they even do prescription glasses too! I got the cutest pair of red glasses! They're so cute and they have a wide variety of glasses to choose from! I usually have to wear new glasses that I purchase online for a while before they adjust to my eyes but, these glasses only took a couple days for my eyes to adjust and didn't give me headaches. 

Here's a pic of me in my new glasses I absolutely adore them! The prescription is dead on and the are super cute and comfy!



If you need a new pair of glasses or sunglasses I highly suggest taking a look at GlassesShop.com! They always have affordable glasses and are always running sales! I never buy my glasses from an optical store anymore these are awesome and very affordable! Right now they're running a Memorial Day sale! Buy 1 pair get the second pair for FREE! Go check it out!

Also right now they have a big campaign called First Pair Free running which means all the new customers can have a pair of free glasses except shipping and handling fee! There are both optical glasses and sunglasses available at the same time. So make sure to check that out!  

Check out GlassesShop.com on Twitter | Facebook

And check out their blog!

Cover Reveal: THE CONSORT by KA Linde

We are very excited to bring you the cover for THE CONSORT the third book in The Ascension series by K.A. Linde. The Consort releases on October 10th!

   


After the loss of a friend and false imprisonment in an Eleysian dungeon, Cyrene has no interest in destiny. Her heart was shattered, friends scattered, and her home is nothing but a pretty illusion. Even her magic won’t cooperate. When all seems lost, she turns to the one person she never thought that she would trust:

Prince Kael.

His darkness mirrors a growing force lurking within her. A struggle she never imagined threatens to consume her. And as friends and foes begin to show their true colors, she starts questioning whether anyone is who they seem. Even herself.

    ADD TO GOODREADS    

PRE-ORDER NOW

Amazon USAmazon UK iBooksB&NKoboGoogle Play

      ta-amazon

The Affiliate: Book 1 "With rich romance and twisty political intrigue, THE AFFILIATE is a breakneck fantasy ride that's perfect for fans of THE SELECTION or THRONE OF GLASS." --Susan Dennard, NYT bestselling author of TRUTHWITCH On the day of her Presenting, in front of the entire Byern Court, seventeen-year-old Cyrene Strohm's lifelong plans come to fruition when she's chosen for one of the most prestigious positions in her homeland--an Affiliate to the Queen. Or so she thinks. When Cyrene receives a mysterious letter and an unreadable book, she finds nothing is as it seems. Thrust into a world of dangerous political intrigue and deadly magic, Cyrene's position only grows more treacherous when she finds herself drawn to the one man she can never have... King Edric himself. Cyrene must decide if love is truly worth the price of freedom. Find out in this first book in USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde's new Ascension series. Great for fans of Game of Thrones, Tudors, and Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series.   ✦ AmazoniBooks B&NKobo    


tb-amazon


Cyrene Strohm is a Queen’s Affiliate, a high-ranking official of the court of Byern, with power and privilege to spare. But she’s also a keeper of dangerous secrets: like the fact that she holds the heart of the King, and that she possesses magic in a world where magic no longer exists. Determined to discover what this means and how to use her newfound abilities, Cyrene sets off for the distant land of Eleysia. An island nation where Affiliates are strictly forbidden from entering. But the journey is perilous, and the destination may mean utter ruin, as Cyrene comes to learn that everything she’s been told her whole life – about her court, her homeland, and even herself—are bound in a beautiful lie.     ✦ AmazoniBooksKobo Goodreads          



K.A. Linde grew up as a military brat and created fantastical stories based off of her love for Disney movies, fairy tales, and Star Wars. In her spare time, she is an avid traveler, loves reading young adult novels, and dancing. Additionally, K.A. has written more than a dozen adult novels and is a USA Today bestselling author. She lives in Lubbock, TX with her husband and two super adorable puppies. K.A. Linde loves to hear from her readers! You can contact her at kalinde45@gmail.com or visit her online at one of the following sites: www.kalinde.com www.facebook.com/authorkalinde @authorkalinde    

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Release Week Blitz- ALLERLEIRAUH by Chantal Gadoury With An Excerpt & Giveaway


I am so excited that ALLERLEIRAUH by Chantal Gadoury is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Chantal Gadoury, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a paperback of the book or an eBook courtesy of The Parliament House and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.



About The Book:

Title: ALLERLEIRAUH
Author: Chantal Gadoury
Pub. Date: August 22, 2017
Publisher: The Parliament House 
Pages: 236
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Find it: AmazonB&NiBooksGoodreads

Once Upon a Time…

In the kingdom of Tranen, a king makes a promise to his dying wife that he'll only remarry a woman who possesses her golden hair. In time, the king's eyes are turned by his daughter. Realizing her father’s intentions, Princess Aurelia tries to trick him by requesting impossible gifts: dresses created by the sun, moon and stars, and a coat made of a thousand furs. But when he is successful, Aurelia sacrifices her privileged life and flees her kingdom, disguised by the cloak and a new name, Allerleirauh.

She enters the safe haven of Saarland der Licht, where the handsome and gentle Prince Klaus takes her under his care. Hoping not to be discovered by her father’s courtiers, Allerleirauh tries to remain hidden under her new identity when she finds unexpected love with Prince Klaus, even though his arranged marriage to the princess of a neighboring kingdom approaches. Risking everything, Allerleirauh must face her troubled past and her fears of the future along her journey to self-acceptance in this triumphant retelling of the classic Grimm Fairy Tale.




Excerpt:
“I won’t ever let them near you again, Aurelia. I swear it,” he promised as his grief-filled eyes met mine. “You must know I love you. It never mattered to me whether you were a princess or not. It matters not to me if you think you are soiled, because to me . . . you are more . . . You are more than what has happened to you, and you always shall be,” he said softly as his hand slid to my cheek. Carefully, his thumb wiped a tear away. “You are this wonderful, head-strong, and brave woman,” Klaus continued. “No one has any right to ever try to take such a thing away from you. It should only ever be admired and cherished.”

More tears began to spill over my cheeks as relief flooded me. Klaus would not turn me away; instead, he accepted me. I rested my forehead against his shoulder, as I felt his arms slowly wrap around me.

“Tell me what you wish for me to do, my sweet Aurelia, and I will do it.”



About Chantal:

Chantal Gadoury is a young author who is originally from the countryside of Muncy, PA. Chantal likes anything Disney, plays a mean game of Disney trivia, enjoys painting and has a interest in British History. Chantal first started writing stories at the age of seven and continues that love of writing today. As a recent college graduate from Susquehanna University, with a degree in Creative Writing, writing novels is a dream come true.






Giveaway Details:

(1) winner will receive A Paperback of ALLERLEIRAUH, US Only

(5) winners will receive eBooks of ALLERLEIRAUH, International.

Ends on August 22nd at Midnight EST!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, August 21, 2017

Blog Tour- THE HAWKWEED LEGACY by Irena Brignull An Interview!


Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for THE HAWKWEED LEGACY by Irena Brignull! 

I have an interview with Irena to share with you today! 


Haven't heard of THE HAWKWEED LEGACY ? Check it out!


Title: THE HAWKWEED LEGACY (Hawkweed Prophecy #2)
Author: Irena Brignull
Pub. Date: August 15, 2017
Publisher: Weinstein Books
Pages: 384
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Find it: AmazonB&NiBooksTBDGoodreads
Poppy is discovering a purpose for her powers in Africa, but she is haunted by a vision of her own death. Taken in by a boy and his great-grandmother, a healer, they vow to keep her safe-even if that ultimately means holding her captive. But Poppy never stops longing for Leo and, when she feels his magic begin to spark, she will do anything to be reunited with him.

Desperate to regain Poppy's trust and bring her home, Charlock embarks on a plan to reunite Leo with his mother. What Charlock doesn't foresee are the string of consequences that she sets into motion that leave Ember all alone and prey to manipulation, the clan open to attack from other witches, Sorrel vulnerable to Raven's ghost, Betony determined to protect her son from his father's fate, and which leave both Leo and Poppy in terrible danger.
Now on to the interview


o   For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about the events leading up to THE HAWKWEED LEGACY and the characters?

In THE HAWKWEED PROPHECY, we first meet Poppy and Ember when they are swapped as babies. Poppy is brought up in a regular home on a regular street, but has weird powers she can’t explain. Ember lives deep in the forest in a secret coven of women with magical powers, though she has none herself. The two girls meet as teenagers and, not realising how their fates are entwined, they forge a friendship born out of isolation and a lifetime of not fitting in. This sets them on a course fraught with danger as they discover their true origins, learn about the spell that swapped them, and try to figure out where and with whom they belong. For they both have fallen for a homeless boy, Leo, and their feelings for him put their friendship to the test.


·       Is this the final book in the series? Or is there more to come?

For the moment, this is the final book in the series. I’ve started writing something new and have a lot of ideas for other, different books. But never say never. I can imagine wanting to revisit the Hawkweeds again.

·       Were any of the characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?

No one specific but I drew on some of my own feelings as a teenager, and that of my siblings and my friends. Also, the books are about mothers as well as daughters, and how damaging a mother’s ambition can be. I took this idea to an extreme but, with three children of my own, I had plenty of examples of different styles of mothering to draw upon.

·       Who was your favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?

I loved writing Poppy because she’s so prickly and confused and full of potential. I also loved writing Charlock because she has so many hidden depths. My least favorite? That’s a hard one because I value all of them, even the wicked ones. I think it would have to be the more minor characters, perhaps the witches in the Eastern clan, who I didn’t have time to get to know and fully.

·       What is your favorite passage/scene in THE HAWKWEED LEGACY?

There’s a scene in a zoo near the end of the book which I hope is very dark and dramatic. I physically felt the tension as I was writing it and I loved the idea of these trapped animals trying to call out to help the character who’s in peril.

·       What kind of research did you have to do for the story?

I mostly rely on my imagination for the witches and their spells, though I did research a lot about the natural world - the flight patterns of migrating birds, plants and herbs with healing properties, when certain plants blossom. Also, the story starts in Africa where I’ve travelled a bit but I needed to do a little more research on it.

·       Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?

What a great question. I wish I had time to give it a real think but my mind immediately went to Heathcliff (a terrible choice as really not good boyfriend material) and Atticus Finch (a far better idea).


·       What inspired you to write YA?

I actually hadn’t even heard of the Young Adult category when I wrote my book so I had no preconceptions. I wasn’t trying to write in a certain genre – I just had an idea for a story and a deep interest in my teenage characters. Those years between childhood and adulthood are such a vivid, confusing, emotional time, full of first experiences. Very rich territory for a writer.

·       What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?

I’m reading Power by Naomi Alderman. It takes the idea that women have developed the power to release electricity through their bodies, and looks at what this does to society. It makes me think of my coven of witches in the forest and why they choose to stay separate from the rest of the world.
Next on my TBR list is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas which I’ve heard such good things about.

·       What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you in?

One of my readers told me I’d be in Ravenclaw so I’ll go with that.

·       Twitter or Facebook?

Twitter. I’ve never done facebook. I like to swim against the tide in my own tiny way.

·       Favorite Superhero?

Elastigirl.

·       Favorite TV show?

The Handmaid’s Tale.

·       Sweet or Salty?

Sweet.

·       Any Phobias?

Insects. Pathetic of me, I know!

·       Song you can’t get enough of right now?

Bonzai – I Feel Alright
·       2017 Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Baby Driver. Can’t wait to see it next week.


About Irena:
I’m Irena Brignull, a screenwriter, novelist and mum. I live with my family in London but I was brought up outside the city in the beautiful Chiltern Hills. The other place that has my heart is Greece where many of my relatives are from. 

My first novel, The Hawkweed Prophecy, was published in June 2016.  The sequel, The Hawkweed Legacy, was published in June 2017.

I write screenplays too. My screenwriting credits include the Oscar nominated movie, The Boxtrolls, starring Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning and Simon Pegg. (I was nominated for Best Screenplay for that one at the Annie Awards in 2014.) My adaptation of The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne and starring Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, James Franco and Marion Cotillard, closed the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. I also adapted Skellig for Sky which starred Tim Roth, John Simm and Kelly MacDonald. 

Before all this, I was a Script Executive at the BBC and then Head of Development at Dogstar Films where I was the script editor on Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, I Capture the Castle and Bravo Two Zero to name a few.

And before that, I studied English Literature at Oxford University.

I don’t have much spare time but, in it, I like to read books and watch movies. It’s kind of my job, I know. But one day I plan to take up lots more hobbies - horse-riding, tap-dancing, baking, juggling…?

Website |  Twitter | Facebook

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Blog Tour- SPELLBOOK OF THE LOST AND FOUND By Moïra Fowley-Doyle An Excerpt & Giveaway!


Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for SPELLBOOK OF THE LOST AND FOUND By Moïra Fowley-Doyle! 

I have an excerpt to share with you today! And make sure to enter the giveaway below!


Haven't heard of SPELLBOOK OF THE LOST AND FOUND? Check it out!



Title: SPELLBOOK OF THE LOST AND FOUND
Author: Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Pub. Date: August 8, 2017
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
Pages: 368
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Find it: Amazon, AudibleB&NiBooksTBDGoodreads
One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found...
Now on to the excerpt

PROLOGUE



That night, everybody lost something.
Not everybody noticed.
It was a Saturday night on the cusp of summer and the air smelled like hot wood and burning rubber, like alcohol and spit, like sweat and tears. It was warm because of the bonfire in the middle of the field, and because of the stolen beers, the wine coolers bought with older siblings’ IDs, the vodka filched from stepparents’ liquor cabinets. There was the hint of a strange sound, that some thought might have been a trapped dog howling, but most decided was just in their imagination.
Some kept drinking, thinking this was just another night spent in a field at the edge of town, close to that invisible line where suburbs become countryside.
Some noticed without really understanding what they’d lost. Some kissed each other with cake on their tongues, rainbow icing dissolving between mouths to make new colors. Some took their schoolbooks and threw them on the bonfire, not caring that there were still two weeks before end-of-year exams.
Some turned around and went back home. Some forgot things they’d always known. Others stumbled, just for a moment, not knowing that they’d lost more than their step.
Some hung back, nervous, torn between edging closer to the fire and calling their parents to come get them. Some slipped small pills onto their tongues and swallowed them with soft drinks, the bubbles tickling their throats as it all went down. Some choked on cigarette smoke even though they’d been smoking for years. Some gripped others’ zippers in shivering fingers, lowered jeans or hitched up skirts. Others watched from the shadows.
By the time the fire had burned down to glowing ashes and a pile of charred wood, when everyone was dreaming deep in their own beds or lying through wine-stained teeth to their parents or getting sick in their best friends’ bathrooms or continuing the party in someone else’s house, apart from the few who’d passed out where they sat, there was nothing left in the field but the things we had lost.


OLIVE
Sunday, May 7th

Lost: Silver, star-shaped hair clip; jacket (light green, rip in one sleeve); flat silver shoe (right, scuffed at the toes)



Daylight is only just touching the tips of the trees when the bonfire goes out. I am leaning against a bale of hay upon which someone I don’t know is sleeping.
I roll my head over to look for Rose, who I was sure was sitting, legs splayed, on the ground beside me. The grass is mostly muck at this point, beaten down by many pairs of shoes and feet. My own feetbare, the nails painted a shiny metallic green that doesn’t show up in the morning darknessare dirty. So is the rest of me.
Rose isn’t here. I call out for her but nobody answers. Not that I expect she’ll be able to; sometime in the night she lost her voice from shouting over the music, from singing along to really bad songs and from all the crying.

Getting ready to go out last night, Rose told me, “Our plan for the evening is to get excessively drunk and then cry.” She swiped her lashes with another layer of mascara, which seemed fairly unwise, given the aforementioned plan.
“Can we make the crying optional?” I said. “My eyeliner’s really good right now.” It had taken me twenty minutes, six cotton swabs, and five tissues to get it even.
“Absolutely not.”
I sneaked a look at my best friend’s reflection. She blinked to dry her mascara. It gave her a deceptively innocent air.
“I don’t know why you want to go to this thing in the first place,” I said.
This thing was the town’s bonfire party. It’s held in May every year. Until midnight it’s filled with sugar-hyper children stuffed dangerously full of badly barbecued burgers threatening to throw up on the bouncy castle. Their parents bop self-consciously to decades-old pop music blaring from rented speakers while the teenagersour classmatessneak off to nearby fields to drink.
“I told you why I want to go,” Rose said. “I plan to get excessively drunk.”
“And then cry,” I reminded her.
“And then cry.”
“Well, you know what they say,” I said to the back of her head. “Be careful what you wish for.”

We slept in the field, which seemed like a good idea at the time. There is a growing chill despite the slowly rising sun and I don’t know if it means that a storm is coming or just that I’ve been in the same position for far too long. I’m beginning to lose all feeling in my right shoulder, the one propped on the prickly pile of hay.
When I look down, on one bare and dirty arm I see the words: If you don’t get lost, you’ll never be found. They’re blurry because my eyes are blurry; it takes five blinks for me to make them out. They run from shoulder to wrist and seem to be written in my own wobbly handwriting, although I don’t remember writing them. When I lick a finger and rub at an n, it doesn’t smudge.
For about as long as we’ve been friends, Rose and I have written what we refer to as our mottos on each other’s arms. When we were younger, they were things like You are beautiful or Carpe diem. These days they’re in-jokes or particularly poignant quotes. We both got detention for a week last year because of our matching block capitals reading DO NO HARM BUT TAKE NO SHIT. I must have written this one during the party, although when or why, I have no idea.
My head feels fuzzy. With a wince and a sigh, I drag myself out of the last dregs of drunkenness and shakily stand up.
I take stock: I am missing a shoe (the other is half buried in the muck beside me) and my jacket. My dress is covered in grass stains and smells distinctly of vodka. I have the beginnings of an epic headache forming and I seem to have lost my best friend.
“Rose!” I call. “Rose?”
The boy on the hay bale twitches in his sleep.
“Hey,” I say to him loudly. I poke his shoulder when he doesn’t wake up. “Hey!”
The boy opens one eye and grunts. He has dirty-blond hair, a stubbly chin, and an eyebrow piercing. I vaguely remember dancing with him last night. He squints at me.
“Olivia?” he says hesitantly.
“Olive.” I have absolutely no idea what his name is. “Have you seen my friend?”
“Roisín?” he says in the tone of someone who isn’t sure he’s saying the right thing.
“Rose.”
“Olive,” he says, sitting up slowly. “Rose.”
“Yes,” I say impatiently. He’s clearly still very drunk. “Yes, Rose, have you seen her?”
“She was crying?”
I pick up my shoe and shove it on my foot, figuring that one shoe is still better than none. “I know. That was our plan for the evening. Did you see where she went?”
“Your plan?”
I scan the field for any sight of her. There’s a blue denim jacket crumpled up on the ground not far away. I take it because I’m beginning to feel very cold.
Pale blue light spills over the trees and into the field. My phone is dead so I don’t know what time it is, but it’s probably close to six a.m.
I start to make my way toward the road. The boy on the hay bale calls out to me. “Can I’ve another kiss before you go?”
I look back at him and make a face. Another kiss? “Not a chance.”
“See you around?”
I shake my head and walk away quickly. Most of my memories of last night seem to have disappeared with Rose.
I make my way around the field, scanning the faces of the sleepers (trying to keep my eyes averted from the ones who clearly aren’t sleeping). It doesn’t take long; she isn’t here. I glance behind me and see that the boy on the hay bale appears to have disappeared, probably slumped on the grass. I am the only person standing.
I turn around in a circle, taking in the stone wall and the tangle of bushes surrounding the field, the fence near the empty road on the other side, the small line of trees separating this field from the next one.
There’s someone there, almost hidden between two spindly pines, staring at me.
It’s a boy. He’s wearing a flat cap and an old, holey sweater that might be green or blackits hard to tell in the shadows. He has a lot of brown, curly hair under that awful hat and is wearing thick, black-framed glasses. He has a hundred freckles on his skin and a guitar slung over his back. He looks like a cross between a farmer and a teenage Victorian chimney sweep. He is unmistakably beautiful.
Before I have time to break his gaze, he turns and walks away and I lose him between the trees.
I look down at myself, at my dirty dress and borrowed denim jacket, at my one bare foot and my grass-stained legs. I could be Cinderella, if Cinderella was a short, chubby, hung­over seventeen-year-old with smudged makeup and tangled hair. And, while I’m very glad that I don’t have a dead father and an evil stepmother, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to explain my current state to my parents when I get home. I try in vain to smooth the creases out of my dress and reach into the bird’s nest of my hair to pin it back with the silver, star-shaped hair clip I tied it up with yesterday, but either my tangles have eaten it or I lost it sometime in the night.
My bike is where I left it, chained to the fence by the side of the road, but it takes me several tries to unlock it because my hands don’t seem to want to work properly and my brain feels increasingly like it’s trying to turn itself inside out. When I clamber on, my bare foot sticks uncomfortably to the pedal.
I pass a grand total of three cars and one tractor on the road into town. The clouds above me are getting very gray, almost as if the dawn has changed its mind and wants to revert back to night. My dress blows up in the breeze, but there’s no one around to see, so I keep both hands on the handlebars and try to ride steadily. Under the sleeve of my borrowed denim jacket I can see the tail end of the sentence written there: You’ll never be found.
It comes back to me in a flash. Rose in my bedroom last night, staring at her reflection in my vanity mirror while pouring generous measures of cheap vodka into a bottle of Diet Coke.
She said, “If you don’t get lost, you’ll never be found.”
We’d drunk a fair amount of the vodka already and her words were slightly slurred.
“At this rate,” I said to her, “the only thing we’ll lose tonight is the contents of our stomachs.”
My prediction was accurate: Another flash of memory has me bent over a hay bale, throwing up some unholy mixture of slightly Diet Cokeflavored vodka and the barbecued hot dogs that we all ate on sticks, posing for pictures, holding the phallic meat like rude children. My stomach lurches at the thought and I have to pull over to the side of the road to retch again.
If you don’t get lost, you’ll never be found.
I cling to the low stone wall by the side of the road like a lifeboat, and sigh. Without warning, it begins to rain. Fat drops fall on the mess of my hair, darken my jacket, hit the dry roadside like cartoon tears. Splat. I have to blink them out of my eyelashes. I sigh again and drag my bike from the ditch.

I ride home through pounding rain and with a pounding headache. Maybe it’s that I drank too much and remember too little about last night. Maybe it’s that Rose left without me. Maybe it’s what the blond-haired boy said about another kiss. Maybe it’s the beautiful boy I saw at the edge of the field, looking like he’d lost something. But I feel like I might have lost something myself, and I have no idea what it is.

About Moïra:
Moïra Fowley-Doyle is half-French, half-Irish and lives in Dublin with her husband, their young daughters, and their old cat. Moïra's French half likes red wine and dark books in which everybody dies. Her Irish half likes tea and happy endings. Moïra started a PhD on vampires in young adult fiction before concentrating on writing young adult fiction with no vampires in it whatsoever. She wrote her first novel at the age of eight, when she was told that if she wrote a story about spiders she wouldn't be afraid of them anymore. Moïra is still afraid of spiders, but has never stopped writing stories. She is the author of The Accident Season and Spellbook of the Lost and Found.

Giveaway Details:


Enter for a chance to be one (1) of three (3) winners to receive a hardcover copy of Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle. (ARV: $17.99 each).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on August 7, 2017 and 12:00 AM on August 28, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about August 30, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.


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Tour Schedule:
Week One:
August 7  ButterMyBooks  Book Photography
August 8  Stories & Sweeties  Review & Cupcakes
August 10  Bibliophile Gathering  Review 
August 11  A Page With a View  Bookish Spells

Week Two:
August 14  Icey Books  Spotlight & Book Photography
August 15  The Fandom  A History of Mystical Objects in YA (and whether or not they can be trusted)
August 16  Here’s to Happy Endings  Author Q&A
August 17  Two Chicks on Books  Excerpt
August 18  Ex Libris  Bookish Spells

Week Three:
August 21  Once Upon a Twilight  Favorite Quotes
August 22  Lost In Lit
August 23  The Book Wars  Review
August 24  Fiction Fare  Author Q&A
August 25  Tales of the Ravenous Reader  Bookish Spells




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