Blog Tour- SACRIFICE by Cindy Pon An Interview & Giveaway!

Hey y'all! I am stoked to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for SACRIFICE by Cindy Pon! I freaking LOVE this fantasy series! I have an interview with Cindy to share with you today. Check it out & make sure to enter the giveaway!

Haven't heard of SACRIFICE? Check it out!

Title: SACRIFICE (Serpentine #2)

Author: Cindy Pon

Pub. Date: September 27, 2016

Publisher: Month9Books

Pages: 300

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | iBooks 

Sacrifice, the sequel to Serpentine, plunges Skybright into the terrifying underworld where demons are bred and whisks her up to the magnificent Mountain of Heavenly Peace where the gods dwell. 

Stone is stripped of his immortal status and told to close hell's breach, which mysteriously remains open, threatening mortals. 

Zhen Ni, Skybright's former mistress and friend, has been wed to the strange and brutish Master Bei, and finds herself trapped in an opulent but empty manor. When she discovers half-eaten corpses beneath the estate, she realizes that Master Bei is not all that he seems. 

As Skybright works to free Zhen Ni with the aid of Kai Sen and Stone, they begin to understand that what is at risk is more far-reaching then they could ever have fathomed.

Now on to the interview!

Hi Cindy! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books! SACRIFICE was absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for everyone to read it! And am so happy that you could stop by for a visit!

Cindy: It is such a pleasure to be here! Thank you for having me!!

For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about SACRIFICE and the characters?

While Serpentine was told only from Skybright's point of view, Sacrifice actually incorporates a trio of narratives: Skybright, Zhen Ni, and Kai Sen. Skybright is a very practical handmaid until she discovers she is actually a half serpent demon of lore. In this book, she really comes into her own. Zhen Ni is a spoiled rich girl, but shows her true grit when she's married off to a brute of a husband with too many secrets. And Kai Sen is our reluctant hero, with too many secrets of his own!

I know there’s a third book in the series do you have a title yet?

I am awful at titles! No title yet, although I have the barest inkling of the story.

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

I love Stone. But in Sacrifice, I found Zhen Ni a lot of fun to write. She's stubborn and sassy. Kai Sen was the hardest character for me! I had to really get to know him through the prose. But in the end, I think I did!

What is your favorite passage/scene in SACRIFICE?

Tough call as I love the entire book! But likely the scenes that take place on high where the Immortals dwell. :)

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

This is the fourth book I have written set in the Kingdom of Xia, so much of the research I had already done. But for this one in particular, I studied Chinese houses, their layouts and the rituals involved in building them.

Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?

I seem to love thieves: Leigh Bardugo's Kas, Megan Whalen Turner's Gen, and Cinda Williams Chima's Han.

Lightening Round Questions

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

Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia

Twitter or Facebook?

Twitter!

Favorite Superhero?

Wonder Woman!

Favorite TV show?

Project Runway!

Sweet or Salty?

Salty.

Any Phobias?

Dolls! (nooooooooo!)

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

U2's "Song for Someone"

Winter Movie you’re most looking forward to?

A Monster Calls!

Thanks so much Cindy for answering my questions! I can’t wait for everyone to read SACRIFICE!

About Cindy:

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. Her most recent novel, Serpentine (Month9Books, 2015), is a Junior Library Guild Selection and received starred reviews from School Library Journal and VOYA. The sequel, Sacrifice, releases this September. WANT, a near-future thriller set in Taipei, will be published by Simon Pulse in summer 2017. She is the co-founder of Diversity in YA with Malinda Lo and on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books. Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Learn more about her books and art at http://cindypon.com.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr | Instagram| Goodreads

Giveaway Details:
Contest ends October 14, 2016 

• One (1) winner will receive a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY)
• Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Serpentine and Sacrifice by Cindy Pon (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Go to Chapter by Chapter to check out the Tour Schedule for more awesome posts!

 Make sure to grab book 1 now if you haven't read it!

Release Day Celebration: Sacrifice (Serpentine #2) by Cindy Pon with Giveaway

 

Welcome to the Release Day Celebration for

Sacrifice (Serpentine #2) by Cindy Pon

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

 

Happy Book Birthday, Cindy!

 

 

Sacrifice, the sequel to Serpentine, plunges Skybright into the terrifying underworld where demons are bred and whisks her up to the magnificent Mountain of Heavenly Peace where the gods dwell.

Stone is stripped of his immortal status and told to close hell's breach, which mysteriously remains open, threatening mortals.

Zhen Ni, Skybright's former mistress and friend, has been wed to the strange and brutish Master Bei, and finds herself trapped in an opulent but empty manor. When she discovers half-eaten corpses beneath the estate, she realizes that Master Bei is not all that he seems.

As Skybright works to free Zhen Ni with the aid of Kai Sen and Stone, they begin to understand that what is at risk is more far-reaching then they could ever have fathomed.

Sacrifice (Serpentine #2) by Cindy Pon Publication Date: September 27, 2016 Publisher: Month9Books

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

 

Stone pulled her into his arms then surprised, she resisted, before submitting to his embrace. He had never overstepped boundaries since taking her captive, and she knew when he did touch her on rare occasion, it was for a reason. His armor made no noise when he moved, and when she pressed both hands to his chest, she felt a tunic beneath her fingers. Soft and worn.

            The immortal was truly never as he appeared.

            “You will see,” Stone said as he tightened his arms around Skybright’s waist, clasping her close like a lover.

            It was unexpected, both thrilling and terrifying; his usual warmth felt uncomfortably hot against her skin.

            Then Stone leaped off the cliff edge.

            A strangled scream tore from Skybright’s throat, but the sudden rush of air snatched it away in an instant, and she couldn’t draw enough breath to even gasp as they plummeted toward the lake far below.

 

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:

 

 

SERPENTINE is a sweeping fantasy set in the ancient Kingdom of Xia and inspired by the rich history of Chinese mythology.

Lush with details from Chinese folklore, SERPENTINE tells the coming of age story of Skybright, a young girl who worries about her growing otherness. As she turns sixteen, Skybright notices troubling changes. By day, she is a companion and handmaid to the youngest daughter of a very wealthy family. But nighttime brings with it a darkness that not even daybreak can quell.

When her plight can no longer be denied, Skybright learns that despite a dark destiny, she must struggle to retain her sense of self – even as she falls in love for the first time.

Amazon | B&N | BAM | Chapters | Indiebound | Kobo | TBD | Google Play | iTunes

 

 

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. Her most recent novel, Serpentine (Month9Books, 2015), is a Junior Library Guild Selection and received starred reviews from School Library Journal and VOYA. The sequel, Sacrifice, releases this September. WANT, a near-future thriller set in Taipei, will be published by Simon Pulse in summer 2017. She is the co-founder of Diversity in YA with Malinda Lo and on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books. Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Learn more about her books and art at http://cindypon.com.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Tumblr

 

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Top Ten Tuesday (79)- Top Ten Favorite Books Coming out this Fall 2016

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

August 30: Back To School Freebie -- anything "back to school" related like 10 favorite books I read in school, books I think should be required reading, Required Reading For All Fantasy Fans, required reading for every college freshman, Books to Pair With Classics or Books To Complement A History Lesson, books that would be on my classroom shelf if I were a teacher

I'm not a teacher and I don't think schools should dictate what kids read (ugh I hated required reading and would have read more if I would have been able to read what I wanted) so I'm just going to post a list of my Top Ten Favorite Books Coming out this Fall 2016!

I'll post the covers and link to goodreads.

1. 

2.  

4.  

5.   

6.   

7.   

8.   

9.   

10.  

So what about you? What are some fall 2016 books you've read or are looking forward to ? And check back next week for a favorite topic of mine! Fall TV Shows I'm looking forward to!!! 

Hugs,

Jaime

Blog Tour- POISONED BLADE by Kate Elliott An Interview & A Giveaway!

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on blog tour for POISONED BLADE by Kate Elliott! I freaking adore this fantasy series!! I have an interview with Kate to share with you today! And make sure to enter the awesome giveaway for a finished copy of the book!!

Haven't heard of POISONED BLADE? Check it out!

Title: POISONED BLADE

Author: Kate Elliot

Release Date: August 16, 2016

Pages: 448

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks

Jessamy is moving up the ranks of the Fives—the complex athletic contest favored by the lowliest Commoners and the loftiest Patrons in her embattled kingdom. Pitted against far more formidable adversaries, success is Jes's only option, as her prize money is essential to keeping her hidden family alive. She leaps at the chance to tour the countryside and face more competitors, but then a fatal attack on Jes's traveling party puts her at the center of the war that Lord Kalliarkos—the prince she still loves—is fighting against their country's enemies. With a sinister overlord watching her every move and Kal's life on the line, Jes must now become more than a Fives champion...She must become a warrior. 

Now on to the interview!

Hi Kate! First I want to say welcome to Two Chicks on Books! POISONED BLADE was absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for everyone to read it! Also I can’t stop seeing Manu Bennett at Esladas ;)

I am so happy that you could stop by for a visit!

KE: Thank you for inviting me aboard! And, yes, although I was actually going for a slightly different appearance, once I saw that photo of Manu Bennett I knew he had the perfect world-weary loyal soldier look for Esladas.

For the readers: can you give us a little recap about COURT OF FIVES and the characters? And what we can expect in POISONED BLADE?

Kirkus Reviews wrote: “After the death of the highly placed aristocrat whose patronage ensured their safety, Jessamy’s mixed-race family is targeted by political enemies; spared thanks to her skill at the game of Fives, she must find a way to save them.”

Jessamy is one of four daughters of Patron-born Captain Esladas and Commoner-born Kiya, who by law are not allowed to marry. The other girls are the eldest, Maraya, Jes’s twin Bettany, and the youngest, Amaya. In the course of her adventures Jes also meets Lord Kalliarkos, who also runs the Fives, and – less pleasantly – Kalliarkos’s uncle Lord Gargaron, who has his own plans for the family. That covers the main characters.

In Poisoned Blade you can expect a lot of action and blood ç that’s the least spoilerish thing I can write.

Slightly spoilerish è Jes has to deal with the fallout from her choice at the end of Court of Fives. She is also desperate to find her lost sister Bettany but the only way to do so is to travel outside Saryenia in the company of Lord Gargaron, the man she hates the most. It’s possible there may be interaction with a giant mechanical spider. And maybe a kiss.

So is there a title for book 3 yet? And if so can you share it?

There is a title for book three and also a preliminary cover, but they are both under wraps for now. The title will make perfect sense to everyone who has finished POISONED BLADE.

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

I don’t generally write characters as analogs of people in life (with one exception in my Crown of Stars series). However I do often take qualities I have seen in individuals and examine them through the lens of fiction. So for example, when I watch a competitive, confident young athlete like snowboarder Chloe Kim or tennis star Serena Williams I imagine how a girl with that drive would find a way to become an adversary in Efea. In the mid 90s I remember reading an interview with one of the players from the UConn women’s basketball team the first year they went unbeaten, in which she said that she played so fiercely because she hated to lose. That statement stuck with me, and “hating to lose” became part of Jes’s character.

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

Jessamy has always been my favorite character to write in the Court of Fives books precisely because she is so competitive, she never lets us, she isn’t ashamed of being confident and assertive, and she is so determined to win despite the odds.

Least favorite is harder. I usually really enjoy writing villains because they are so despicable. So my least favorite character to write may often be the character who was hardest to “get right” and who I had to really dig into during rewrites to get exactly the nuance of personality I was hoping for. In Poisoned Blade I think Bettany was the hardest character to write. I don’t really have a least favorite character though; good or bad, if the characters shine then I enjoy writing them.

What is your favorite passage/scene in POISONED BLADE?

Probably the sequence in the desert, and the last paragraph of the book. To give more details would be spoiling.

What kind of research did you have to do for the story? There’s a lot of American Ninja Warrior like courses, did you marathon the shows for inspiration? (Love that show btw)

Yes I was forced to watch a lot of American Ninja Warrior and Sasuke (the original Japanese show). Also training montage clips like this of Stephen Amell in tv show Arrow. Believe me, I have really suffered for my art:

I also did a lot of reading about Greco-Roman (Ptolemaic) Egypt, a period two thousand years ago when first the Greeks (Macedeonians starting with Alexander the Great) and later (after the death of the last  Ptolemaic ruler, Cleopatra) the Roman Empire ruled Egypt. The society of Efea is loosely inspired by that era although it’s not an historical novel but a made up fantasy world. The setting was originally inspired by my spouse’s work at the archaeological site of Tell Timai in the Delta Region of Egypt, which was a flourishing provincial capital at that time.  

Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?

Mr Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

What inspired you to write YA?

I’ve spent much of my career writing in the genre of adult sff. When I was young most of the stories centered around men and boys, who were considered the “appropriate” subjects of adventure and action fiction. To be honest, it’s always been a bit of an uphill climb for me to place women and girls at the center of the action without feeling like I have to prove that it’s “historically accurate” (in fantasy!) or “realistic” or “interesting” for them to be there. I knew that in YA I would never ever have to defend my desire to write stories about a fierce heroine.

Lightning Round Questions

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

I am dying to read Cindy Pon’s SACRIFICE, the follow-up to her YA fantasy novel SERPENTINE, which came out last year. Her protagonist, Skybright, is an obedient lady in waiting in a fantasy setting based on historical China who finds out something monstrous about herself. I can’t wait to continue her story.

What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you in?

My daughter says I’m a Ravenclaw and the Pottermore Sorting Hat placed me in Griffindor, so I’ve decided I’m a Griffinclaw

Twitter or Facebook?

Twitter

Favorite Superhero?

Kitty Pryde

Favorite TV show?

Firefly

Sweet or Salty?

Sweet

Any Phobias?

Venomous eight-inch centipedes.

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

“This is What You Came For” by Calvin Harris (feat. Rihanna). In fact I think of this as Jes and Kal’s theme song.

Fall Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Moana and Rogue One (Star Wars): Please, please let them be good. Mostly I am so waiting for the sequel to Pacific Rim, which was my favorite film of 2013 but isn’t due for a while.

Thanks so much Kate for answering my questions! I can’t wait for everyone to read POISONED BLADE!

About Kate:

Kate Elliott has been writing stories since she was nine years old, which has led her to believe that writing, like breathing, keeps her alive. As a child in rural Oregon, she made up stories because she longed to escape to a world of lurid adventure fiction. She now writes fantasy, steampunk, science fiction, and YA, including recent works Black Wolves, Court of Fives, and Cold Magic.

It should come as no surprise that she met her future husband in a sword fight. When he gave up police work to study archaeology, they and their three children fell into an entirely new set of adventures amid dusty Mexican ruins and mouthwatering European pastry shops. Eventually her spouse’s work forced them to move to Hawaii, where she took up outrigger canoe paddling. With the three children out of the house, they now spoil the schnauzer.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Live Journal | Goodreads | Tumblr

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of POISONED BLADE, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

8/8/2016- SFFWorld.com- Interview

8/9/2016- Sarcasm & Lemons- Review

8/10/2016- Such a Novel Idea- Guest Post

8/11/2016- The Eater of Books- Review

8/12/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Interview

Week Two:

8/15/2016- Fiction Fare- Review

8/16/2016- Dark Faerie Tales- Guest Post

8/17/2016- YaReads- Review

8/18/2016- Once Upon a Twilight- Interview

8/19/2016- Just Commonly- Review

If you haven’t started this series yet now’s a great time!

Top Ten Tuesday (74)- My Top Ten Books Set Outside The US

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

July 19: Ten Books Set Outside The US 

I read a ton of books set outside of the US! Because I don't read contemporary a lot of the books I read are in different worlds but, I won't be sharing those today I'm sharing fantasies and historical's that are set in real places. And these are just some recent favorites if you want to see my complete list check out my Goodreads page!

I'll be sharing the book covers! So click on the cover and it'll take you to the Goodreads page :)

1. Set in England.

2. Set in China.

3. Set in England.

4.  Set in England and Europe, mostly Hungary.

5. Set mostly in Egypt.

6. Set in Macedon, Persia, and Egypt.

7. Set in England.

8. Set in Romania and The Ottoman Empire.

9.  Set mostly in England and Scotland.

10.  Set in France and England.

So what about you? What are some of your favorite books set outside of the US? And check back next week for my Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do or Learn About After Reading Them! I may not make 10 on this one but I'l try! 

Hugs,

Jaime