Blog Tour- COURTING DARKNESS by Robin LaFevers With An Excerpt & Giveaway!

I am happy to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for COURTING DARKNESS by Robin LaFevers! I LOVEEEEE Robin and am a huge fan of all of her books!!! I have an excerpt to share with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below!

About The Book:

Title: COURTING DARKNESS (Courting Darkness Duology #1)

Author: Robin LaFevers

Pub. Date: February 5, 2019

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 160

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Death wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning…

Sybella has always been the darkest of Death’s daughters, trained at the convent of Saint Mortain to serve as his justice. But she has a new mission now. In a desperate bid to keep her two youngest sisters safe from the family that nearly destroyed them all, she agrees to accompany the duchess to France, where they quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Their one ray of hope is Sybella’s fellow novitiates, disguised and hidden deep in the French court years ago by the convent—provided Sybella can find them.

Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she struggles to remember who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. Her only solace is a hidden prisoner who appears all but forgotten by his guards. When tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands—even if it means ignoring the long awaited orders from the convent.

As Sybella and Gen’s paths draw ever closer, the fate of everything they hold sacred rests on a knife’s edge. Will they find each other in time, or will their worlds collide, destroying everything they care about?

See where it all began! Grab the His Fair Assassin Trilogy now! You don’t need to read these to read Courting Darkness but they’re amazing!

Grave Mercy- Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Dark Triumph- Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Mortal Heart- Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Now on to the excerpt!

Sybella

From the height of the eastern tower, I can see that the holly bush is slightly larger than yesterday, as is the crop of offerings beneath its branches. It is hard to keep my fingers from drifting to the twig hidden in my belt, even as I mock myself for doing so. And yet I cannot bring myself to throw it away.

Harder still is not picking at the scabs that have begun to form over old wounds. Especially now that the essence of what made me more than simply the sum of those wounds has been taken from me.

But not all of it has been taken. I am still able to experience the souls of the dying. Indeed, it is the soul of the guard who died with my hand on his chest that brings me to this tower today.

It has been a full week since the battle. While souls normally linger for only three days before moving to the Otherworld, those that suffer a violent death often take longer, if they ever move on at all. And today, with no people nearby to distract me with their heartbeats, I am able to sense a few that remain. They bump and flutter, restless and unsettled.

For my entire life, this ability to sense souls has felt more like a curse than a gift. When I was a child, their cold, chill presence brushed against me with icy wings of terror. In the end, they were nothing to be afraid of, although it took me a long time to learn that.

It is the souls of the newly dead — like those I killed yesterday — that are the most disturbing. The forced, unwanted intimacy, the eager, hungry way they flock to my warmth, the shocking and unwelcome invasion of their final thoughts shoving their way into my mind. I have learned to protect myself from them, with practice. But there is always that initial violation before I can resist. However, in this new upended world, like a beggar with scraps, I will grasp this remaining gift with both hands and call it a feast.

As the wisps of faded souls flutter against me, I close my eyes, trying to think how best to invite them to me. As it turns out, I do not have to. Merely having the thought causes them to flock to me like moths to flame, the dark gray ripple of their invisible wings barely detectable.

It is the weight of their souls and memories that nearly causes me to stagger. The neigh of a war horse. A flash of steel. An aching regret for a pair of lips that will never be kissed again. A surge of honor here. A wave of shame at being bested there. It is like running my hand through the small stones in a riverbed, each one cold, vividly colored, and uniquely formed.

Except for one — one of them is shockingly vibrant, so much so that I wonder if one of the wounded on the battlefield was overlooked and that he passed into death but recently.

Before I can fully explore this, I am distracted by a living heartbeat mounting the stairs behind me. My eyes snap open, and I quickly lower my arms. The heart beats in a rhythm so slow and deep and steady that I recognize it immediately.

Beast.

About Robin:

Robin LaFevers was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic.

Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she did attend Catholic school for three years, which instilled in her a deep fascination with sacred rituals and the concept of the Divine. She has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries ever since.

While many of those answers still elude her, she was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of southern California.

In addition to writing about teen assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, she writes books for middle grade readers, including the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series. You can learn more about those books at www.rllafevers.com.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

20 winners will receive His Fair Assassin character card sets, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/21/2018- The Pages In-Between- Review

1/22/2018- Fiction Fare- Review

1/23/2018- YA Books Central- Excerpt

1/24/2018- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

1/25/2018- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Review

Week Two:

1/28/2019- Colorimetry- Review

1/29/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

1/30/2019- A Gingerly Review- Review

1/31/2019- Moonlight Rendezvous- Review

2/1/2019- Novel Novice- Excerpt

Week Three:

2/4/2019- Lisa Loves Literature- Review

2/5/2019- Flyleaf Chronicles- Review

2/6/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

2/7/2019- A Backwards Story- Review

2/8/2019- Jena Brown Writes- Review

Week Four:

2/11/2019- Nerdophiles- Review

2/12/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

2/13/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

2/14/2019- Do You Dog-ear?- Review

2/15/2019- Book Briefs- Review

Release Day Blitz- EVER THE BRAVE by Erin Summerill With An Excerpt & Giveaway!

I am so excited that EVER THE BRAVE by Erin Summerill is available now and that I get to share the news!

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

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a 3 finished copies of the book courtesy of Erin, HMH, 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: EVER THE BRAVE (Clash of Kingdoms #2)

Author: Erin Summerill

Pub. Date: December 5, 2017

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Pages: 464

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Find it: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

Ever the Divided. Ever the Feared. Ever the Brave.

After saving King Aodren with her newfound Channeler powers, Britta only wants to live a peaceful life in her childhood home. Unfortunately, saving the King has created a tether between them she cannot sever, no matter how much she'd like to, and now he's insisting on making her a noble lady. And there are those who want to use Britta’s power for evil designs. If Britta cannot find a way to harness her new magical ability, her life—as well as her country—may be lost.

The stakes are higher than ever in the sequel to Ever the Hunted, as Britta struggles to protect her kingdom and her heart.

About Book 1

Title: EVER THE HUNTED

Author: Erin Summerill

Pub. Date: December 27, 2016

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Pages: 400

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

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

Seventeen year-old Britta Flannery is at ease only in the woods with her dagger and bow. She spends her days tracking criminals alongside her father, the legendary bounty hunter for the King of Malam—that is, until her father is murdered. Now outcast and alone and having no rights to her father’s land or inheritance, she seeks refuge where she feels most safe: the Ever Woods. When Britta is caught poaching by the royal guard, instead of facing the noose she is offered a deal: her freedom in exchange for her father’s killer.

However, it’s not so simple.

The alleged killer is none other than Cohen McKay, her father’s former apprentice. The only friend she’s ever known. The boy she once loved who broke her heart. She must go on a dangerous quest in a world of warring kingdoms, mad kings, and dark magic to find the real killer. But Britta wields more power than she knows. And soon she will learn what has always made her different will make her a daunting and dangerous force. 

Excerpt:

The king and his men ride away into the Ever Woods.

Gillian sweeps in, face beaming. I want to shake her shoulders and erase that smile. I slam the door.

“You look murderous.” Gillian spins around, her skirts swishing against the stone.

“I am.”

A blink. “You don’t like the dresses?”

“Really? You’ve been living with me for a month.”

“Right. So they’re not your usual choice, but they’re variety. Something different form brown trousers.

“They’re for the Royal Winter Feast Ball. He wants to sprinkle royal dust on me and make me noble.”

Gillian presses her hands to her cheeks and pretends to swoon.

“Stop it,” I snap.

She flounces into the bedroom and lifts a rose dress from the bed. That grin. Seeds. She’s as mad as the King Aodren.

The pull to the king, still taut in my chest, halves my attention from her squealing prattle. I press my palm to my sternum. I’d give anything to be free of him. To be able to live in peace on Papa’s land. But I don’t know how to break the bond.

If Enat were still alive — the thought flattens me — she’d know what to do. She’d tell me how to free myself from King Aodren. He’s been gone for five minutes, and I can still pick out his location in the Ever Woods.

I pound my fist on the door. I have to figure out a way to rid myself of the bond. I have to.

Gillian jerks to a stop. “It’s not the end of the world.”

I start to respond, but an answering rush of something strange and shuddery slips under the surface of my skin. I lurch, cradling my suddenly clammy hand, eyeing Gillian, then the door with growing alarm. Unease spreads from the top of my head to my heels, a drop of poison fanning through a jar of ale.

I’ve felt this way before.


“What is it?” Gillian’s fists crinkle a rose-colored gown. Breath suddenly short, I yank the door open and stare deep into the Evers. The breeze’s icy fingers caress my face. There’s nothing to see, but something is very wrong.

“The king.”

About Erin:

Erin Summerill was born in England. After spending years bouncing between Air Force bases in Hawaii, England, and California, her family settled in Utah, where Erin graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University. She had aspirations to write the next great American novel, but writing proved tougher than she first thought. So she grabbed a Nikon and became a professional photographer while crafting manuscript after manuscript. The scenic detour of shooting weddings across the United States, as well as internationally, provided world-building inspiration. It gave her the vision to draft her debut YA fantasy, EVER THE HUNTED. Now when she isn’t writing, or shooting a wedding, she’s chasing her four kids, two dogs, one cat, and five chickens. This could be why she downs massive amounts of Coke Zero and Hot tamales.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of EVER THE BRAVE, US Only.

Ends December 12^th midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: SPARKS OF LIGHT by Janet B. Taylor An Excerpt & Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for SPARKS OF LIGHT by Janet B. Taylor! I freaking love this series and book 2 was just as amazing as book 1!

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

Haven't heard of SPARKS OF LIGHT? Check it out!

Title: SPARKS OF LIGHT

Author: Janet B. Taylor

Pub. Date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Pages: 448

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Find it: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

For the first time in her life, Hope Walton has friends . . . and a (maybe) boyfriend. She’s a Viator, a member of a long line of time-traveling ancestors. When the Viators learn of a plan to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla, only a race into the past can save the natural timeline from utter destruction. Navigating the glitterati of The Gilded Age in 1895 New York City, Hope and her crew will discover that high society can be as deadly as it is beautiful. 

Book Trailer Courtesy of The YA Book Traveler

Now on to the excerpt!

We turned to each other, then. He raised my hands to his lips. One after the other, he placed a soft kiss in the center of each palm. I shivered as I squeezed my fists shut, trying to hold on to those kisses.

“You know,” he said in a musing tone. “If you weren’t leaving in six minutes and twenty-two seconds, and if we lived in the age where all this”— he waved a hand at the field of contestants and spectators—“was real. Back when men were men and all that. I’d simply heave you over my shoulder and carry you off into yonder meadow over there.”

“Ha! I’d just kick you in the kilt and run away.” I was grinning, though my face went red at the images his statement produced.

He threw his head back and laughed up at the blue, blue sky. “Yes. You would, wouldn’t you?”

“So, um, six minutes and twenty-two seconds, huh?”

He nodded. “Six minutes, eight seconds now. But who’s counting?”

Our faces were very close. My lips tingled as they remembered the feel of his mouth on mine. I think I must’ve sighed, or groaned, or made some other kind of embarrassing noise. Because his eyes went all smoky, and he chuckled low in his throat. The sound went through my chest and settled shivery and low in my belly. All my attention sharpened on his mouth as his hands came up to cradle my face. He held me there, so close I could feel the heat of his sun-warmed skin on my lips. My eyes closed as I leaned in to close that minuscule distance.

Collum coughed loudly as he and Doug passed by, canvas-wrapped tent poles suspended between them.

Bran broke away and pulled me to my feet. His voice low, urgent, he said, “I know I can’t talk you into staying, but please, please be careful. Promise me?”

“You too.” As he let go of my hand and backed away, my chest constricted. And it felt as though some giant vacuum had suddenly appeared in the sky to suck away all the oxygen in the open field around me.

Bran called to Mac. “Thank you for listening to me, sir.” Mac waved in acknowledgment, then got into the driver’s seat. He and Moira pulled away, back tires spinning up gravel.

“Well,” I said, “I’d better go.”

Bran nodded, wordless. We began to walk away in opposite directions. We did that a lot, it seemed.

Suddenly I heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel behind me.

“Wait!” Bran called. “Wait . . . just wait one second.”

He towed me quickly back toward the long, stout table that had been in place since Moira’s grandmother was a girl. Reaching down, he withdrew his sgian dhub, the tiny but lethal knife all proper Highlanders wore, stuffed into the top of their right sock.

“Nearly forgot,” he said. “Can’t have that, now can we?”

His long neck bent to the task. Muscles in his lean shoulders flexed. Sun flashed on polished steel. It took only a moment. He straightened and drew me to his side as he brushed away the pale shavings that littered the top of the ancient table.

There we were. Our initials looked so new, so fragile, amid all the others that had weathered the years and decades together. But staring down at them, I also realized how bright we glowed against the aged wood.

BC + HW.

Instead of enclosed in a heart like all the others, Bran had wrapped us up together inside the shape of a small and perfect apple.

“You heard what Moira said.” His hand smoothed over my hair as he smiled down at me. “Now it’s forever.”

About Janet:

The 2013 winner of the coveted #PitchWars, Janet B Taylor, has four years' experience writing web content for a major television network fan site (CBS) that garners over a hundred thousand hits a day. Janet travels extensively to those places where her novels are set, often roaming around at night to commune with the famous historical figures about which she loves to write. She is a member of several writing organizations, including the SCBWI and the Historical Novel Society, and lives in a tiny town in Arkansas with her family.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr | Pinterest

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of SPARKS OF LIGHT, US only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/24/2017- a GREAT read- Review

7/25/2017- Lisa Loves Literature- Review

7/26/2017- YA and Wine- Guest Post

7/27/2017- Ex Libris- Review

7/28/2017- Once Upon A Twilight- Interview

Week Two:

7/31/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland- Interview

8/1/2017- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

8/2/2017- History from a Woman's Perspective- Review

8/3/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

8/4/2017- The Bucket List- Review

Grab book 1 in the series!

Blog Tour: VENTURESS by Betsy Cornwell An Interview & Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for VENTURESS by Betsy Cornwell! I freaking love this series! 

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

Haven't heard of VENTURESS? Check it out!

Title: VENTURESS

Author: Betsy Cornwell

Pub. Date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: Clarion Books

Pages: 320

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Find it: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

Young inventor Nicolette Lampton is living her own fairy tale happy ending. She's free of her horrible step-family, running a successful business, and is uninterested in marrying the handsome prince, Fin. Instead, she, Fin, and their friend Caro venture to the lush land of Faerie, where they seek to put an end to the bloody war their kingdom is waging. Mechanical armies and dark magic await them as they uncover devastating secrets about the past and fight for a real, lasting happily-ever-after for two troubled countries—and for themselves.

Now on to the interview!

Hey Betsy!! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books I’m glad you could stop by for a chat! VENTURESS was freaking AWESOME and I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about the events leading up to VENTURESS and the characters?

Okay first of all, thank you so much! It’s always a huge relief to hear that someone enjoyed your new book. Since VENTURESS is a standalone novel - meaning that you don’t have to read MECHANICA first to understand what’s happening - I wanted to put a little bit of space in between the first book in the series and this one.

VENTURESS kicks off a year after the end of MECHANICA, on the eve of the annual ball and scientific exposition. The heroine, Nick, is a successful inventor living happily with her clockwork horse and other steampunk animal companions in the heart of the royal city. Her best friends/family unit, Caro and Fin, are both wrapped up in their own challenges: a new romance for Caro, and all sorts of political trouble for Fin. There’s a war between their country and Faerie, and at the ball Nick receives a secret message begging for help with the resistance.

So is this the end for Nicolette and the crew? And if it is what are you working on now?

VENTURESS is the last book with these main characters, but I’m not quite done with the world of Esting and Faerie: you might see Nick and her friends popping up in the background of future books. I’ve just wrapped up revisions on a girl-Robin-Hood retelling called THE FOREST QUEEN that’s set in Esting 200 years before Nick was born. (You might notice little references to the Forest Queen’s story in both MECHANICA and VENTURESS.)

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

I think there are little pieces of many people from my life in all of my characters, but I don’t tend to base them directly on just one person. I certainly met plenty of strong and smart young women inventors at Smith, where I went to college: it was the first college in the country to offer an all-women’s engineering program. I definitely think Nick would fit right in with that group of Smithies.

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

I always love writing Jules, Nick’s mechanical horse. It was probably even more fun to write about him in VENTURESS than it was in MECHANICA, because he spends all his time actual-horse-sized instead of tiny and therefore can be more involved in all the action. I don’t think I had a least favorite character to write - if I start to hate writing someone, I take that as a sign that they shouldn’t be in the book at all.

What is your favorite passage/scene in VENTURESS?

I have two! One is their underwater adventure in the bathysphere pods, which you can actually preview on HMH Teen right now (link: 

http://hmhteen.com/post/161820616423/hmh-teen-teaser-venturess-by-betsy-cornwell 

The other is a spoiler, sorry! I cried when I wrote it, so it might be masochistic to 

say it’s one of my favorites, but I’m proud of it.

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

One of the things that’s never sat easy with me about the steampunk genre is how pro-colonial it can be. I wanted Esting to be a darker vision of Victorian-era imperial England. Faerie is at least partly inspired by my adopted home country of Ireland, which was of course one of England’s colonies. I read about the colonial history of Ireland, as well as America and India, as I was getting ready to write both MECHANICA and VENTURESS.

I do a lot of research into folklore and fairy tales in my work as the story editor at PARABOLA, a magazine that examines religious and spiritual traditions from around the world. As I was finishing VENTURESS, I came across a popular Korean fairy tale called “The Blind Man’s Daughter,” and I was startled by how perfectly it fit in with the themes I was exploring in my book. I have one of my characters tell a Faerie interpretation of that story in VENTURESS.

Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?

There are so many! Springing to mind right now is Char from ELLA ENCHANTED - Gail Carson Levine really knows how to write swoony MG/YA heroes.

What inspired you to write YA?

In college, I spent a semester interning at Teen Ink Magazine, and I was blown away by the quality of writing we received (Teen Ink is one of the biggest publishers of literary writing by teenagers). I kept thinking about all the beautiful, inventive, and lyrical fairy tale retellings I’d loved to read when I was younger. I realized that my wish to write literary fiction and my love for fairy tales and YA didn’t have to be mutually exclusive! I drafted my first novel, TIDES, during that semester.

Lightening Round Questions

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

The Invention of Angela Carter, a biography of my favorite writer.

What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you in?

OK, I have to give a slightly extended answer for this one. When I was eleven/actual first year age: Ravenclaw, all the way. But adult me would beg to be a Hufflepuff.

Twitter or Facebook?

Twitter.

Favorite Superhero?

Gertrude Yorkes from Runaways.

Favorite TV show?

Buffy, always and forever.

Sweet or Salty?

Salty!

Any Phobias?

Spiders, unfortunately. At least there are no deadly ones in Ireland.

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

“The Maid Freed From The Gallows” sung by Tia Blake, which I listened to incessantly over the last few months while I was working on THE FOREST QUEEN.

2017 Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Probably the Kingsman sequel - the first one was so fun.

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

Thank you so much for having me!

About Betsy:

Hi! I'm Betsy Cornwell, an American writer and teacher living in a stove-heated cottage in west Ireland, together with my horse trainer spouse, a small herd of dairy goats, and an increasing number of other animals. I write fiction and nonfiction and blog about Irish folklore, travel, wild food, goats (of course!), homesteading, and growing up.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of VENTURESS. US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/24/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Interview

7/25/2017- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

7/26/2017- BookHounds YA- Guest Post

7/27/2017- The Book Nut- Interview

7/28/2017- jrsbookreviews- Review

Week Two:

7/31/2017- Nicole's Novel Reads- Review

8/1/2017- Novel Novice- Guest Post

8/2/2017- History from a Woman's Perspective- Review

8/3/2017- YA Book Madness- Interview

8/4/2017- Sarcasm & Lemons- Review

Grab the first book in the series!