Blog Tour- FLAME IN THE MIST by Renée Ahdieh An Interview & A Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be kicking off the blog tour for FLAME IN THE MIST by Renée Ahdieh ! I freaking loved this book maybe even more than her Wrath & The Dawn Series probably because I'm kinda obsesses with Feudal Japan and all things Samurai! If you love historical fantasy I suggest you get this book now!

I have an interview with Renée to share with you today check it out!

And make sure to enter the giveaway below!

Haven't heard of FLAME IN THE MIST? Check it out!

Title: FLAME IN THE MIST

Author: Renée Ahdieh

Pub. Date: May 16, 2017

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Pages: 368

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

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

The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has long known her place—she may be an accomplished alchemist, whose cunning rivals that of her brother Kenshin, but because she is not a boy, her future has always been out of her hands. At just seventeen years old, Mariko is promised to Minamoto Raiden, the son of the emperor's favorite consort—a political marriage that will elevate her family's standing. But en route to the imperial city of Inako, Mariko narrowly escapes a bloody ambush by a dangerous gang of bandits known as the Black Clan, who she learns has been hired to kill her before she reaches the palace.

Dressed as a peasant boy, Mariko sets out to infiltrate the ranks of the Black Clan, determined to track down the person responsible for the target on her back. But she's quickly captured and taken to the Black Clan’s secret hideout, where she meets their leader, the rebel ronin Takeda Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, his best friend Okami. Still believing her to be a boy, Ranmaru and Okami eventually warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. As Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets, of betrayal and murder, which will force her to question everything she's ever known.

Now on to the interview!

Hey Renée! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books! It’s been a while since you’ve been here I’m so happy you could stop by for a chat! FLAME IN THE MIST was absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

For the readers: can you give us a little info on FLAME IN THE MIST and the characters?

Absolutely! FITM is the story of Mariko, a girl who barely escapes an assassination attempt and then decides to infiltrate a clan of ninja and disguise herself as a boy in order to figure out who tried to kill her. Of course, once she’s there, she learns from the leader of this band of ninja that not is all as it seems.

So do we have a title for book 2 yet?

We do! I can’t quite share it yet, but it’s so in keeping with the spirit of the series.

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

The main character, Mariko, was inspired by Hermione Granger and my brilliant younger sister.

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

I loved writing Mariko. I’d say my least favorite was probably the emperor.

What is your favorite passage/scene in FLAME IN THE MIST?

I think it’s probably the one that takes place at a tea house. There are lots of sensory details and a fight scene that erupts, so it was a lot of fun to write.

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

I read a lot of philosophy on the time period, especially when it came to bushido. I have East Asian heritage, and I always knew I wanted to write a book based in an East Asian culture.

Who is your ultimate book boyfriend?

I have a special place in my heart for Jalal because he was inspired by my husband.

What inspired you to write YA?

YA books are the books I’ve always read and been passionate about. FITM is essentially the book I wished I had as a teenager.

Lightening Round Questions

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

I’m reading Marie Lu’s WARCROSS, and it is amazing!

What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you in?

Slytherin. Multiple times!

Twitter or Facebook?

Instagram

Favorite Superhero?

Storm or Tony Stark

Favorite TV show?

Game of Thrones

Sweet or Salty?

Salty

Any Phobias?

Spiders

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble”

2017 Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Wonder Woman

Thanks so much Renée for answering my questions! I can’t wait for everyone to read FLAME IN THE MIST! Big hugs!!!!

Thank YOU so much <3 o:p="">

About Renée:

Renée Ahdieh is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger. In her spare time, she likes to dance salsa and collect shoes. She is passionate about all kinds of curry, rescue dogs, and college basketball. The first few years of her life were spent in a high-rise in South Korea; consequently, Renée enjoys having her head in the clouds. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and their tiny overlord of a dog.

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

Giveaway Details:

Enter for a chance to win one (1) of five (5) copies of Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh (ARV: $17.99 each).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on May 8, 2017 and 12:00 AM on June 5, 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 June 10, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pre-Order Contest!!!

Win a trip to meet Renee Ahdieh! Upload your proof of preorder to be entered to win a trip for two to meet Renée Ahdieh at the ultimate celebration of books in NYC, Book Con 2017. All who enter will receive an exclusive button pack. Click on the image to be taken to the contest link.

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

May 8 – Two Chicks on Books – Author Q&A

May 9 – The Eater of Books! – Mood Board

May 10 – Book Hounds YA – Guest Post

May 11 – YA Book Central – Excerpt

May 12 – A Page With A View – Review + Photos

Week Two:

May 15 – The Young Folks – Guest Post

May 16 – Once Upon a Twilight – Author Q&A

May 17 – The Fandom – Guest Post

May 18 – Alexa Loves Books – Bookish Style File

May 19 – Fiction Fare – Review

Week Three:

May 22 – Brittany’s Book Rambles – Review

May 23 – ButterMyBooks – Review + Photos

May 24 – Mundie Moms – Author Q&A

May 25 – A Perfection Called Books – Review

May 26 – Novel Novice – Flame Pinsperation

Week Four:

May 29 – Twirling Pages – Review + Photos

May 30 – Tales of the Ravenous Reader – Guest Post

May 31 – Oh the Book Feels – Review

June 1 – Dark Faerie Tales – Author Q&A

June 2 – The Book’s Buzz – Japanese Lesson

Dying to Read (87)- KIN by Lili St. Crow

Hey y’all thanks for stopping by to see my Dying to Read post and of course as always I have to give credit to the lovely Jill over at Breaking the Spine for the Waiting on Wednesday Meme!

I absolutely love this series and I don't think it's gotten the attention it deserves. So I'm really excited to read KIN when it come sout!

Title: KIN
Author: Lili St. Crow

Release Date: March 3, 2015

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN: 978-1595146212

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Dreamily dark and spellbinding with a hint of horror, New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow stuns with this toothsome retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Full moon. Glowing eyes. Red lips. And such sharp, sharp teeth… 

In the kin world, girls Ruby de Varre’s age are expected to play nice, get betrothed, and start a family—especially if they’re rootkin, and the fate of the clan is riding on them. But after a childhood of running wild in the woods, it’s hard to turn completely around and be demure. Even if your Gran is expecting it.

Then Conrad, handsome and charming, from a clan across the Waste, comes to New Haven to seal alliance between their two families. The sparks fly immediately. Conrad is smart, dominant, and downright gorgeous. Yet as Ruby gets to know him more, she starts to realize something's...off. 

Then, the murders start. A killer stalks the city streets, and just when Ruby starts to suspect the unimaginable, she becomes the next target. Now Ruby’s about to find out that Conrad’s secrets go deeper than she ever could have guessed—and it’s up to Ruby to save her Gran, her clan, and maybe even herself....

Prepare to become thrillingly lost in the third, final, and simply mesmerizing installment of Lili St. Crow’s Tales of Beauty and Madness series.

So what do you think? Will you be adding this to your pile? What are you dying to read this week?

Blog Tour- BRAZEN by Katherine Longshore and a Giveaway!

Today I have my buddy Katherine Longshore stopping by to talk about the music behind BRAZEN! Check it out and make sure to enter the awesome giveaway below! And as always I will have videos for my favorite songs!
Haven't heard of BRAZEN? Check it out!

Title: BRAZEN

Author: Katherine Longshore

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Pub. Date: June 12, 2014

Pages: 528

Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she’s married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court’s inner circle. Mary and “Fitz” join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court’s strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed…but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

Now on to the post! I've added some videos and there's YouTube links to the other ones.

BRAZEN Playlist

I love music.  I definitely lean toward a certain tone and genre—something alternative/rock/folk.  I have a distinct love of great guitar and surprising harmonies.  But more than that, I love lyrics.  I’m a word person, so for me the words of a song often matter more than the music and melody behind them.  I don’t often listen to music when I write—I find the words distracting—but listen to my playlists while walking or washing dishes or driving in order to keep my head in the essence and ambience of the story.  All of these songs contributed in some way to how I see the main characters of BRAZEN, and to their actions.

Firework by Katy Perry.  My playlists don’t usually include mainstream pop music, but I wanted to be able to play this song for my narrator, Mary Howard FitzRoy.  She felt buried by her family, by her society, by her situation, and this song is an anthem to overcoming all of that.  This also applies to Raise Your Glass by Pink.  Both songs are pretty brazen, don’t you think?

I’m Just a Girl by No Doubt.  Because being trapped in Tudor England would make me feel like I’ve had it up to here, too.  I’m sure Mary did.

Rumour Has It by Adele.  I love this song--its insistent beat and its twisty ending.  I could totally see Anne Boleyn singing it in the galleries of Hampton Court with Mary and her friends as backup.

Gutless by Hole.  Showing my grunge roots here.  Mary never gets so angry that she would express herself this vehemently, but I could see her mother doing so…

Defying Gravity by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.  My even deeper roots go back to theater, and though I could never sing, I love musicals.  Wicked is a brilliant piece of work theatrically and musically, and I love this song about shaking off the past and expectations, and believing in one’s own abilities and desires.

The Rake’s Song by the Decemberists.  This is a song about infanticide and the titular “rake” divesting himself of his troublesome wife and offspring.  Remind you of anyone?  It helped me get a little bit inside Henry’s head.

What a Good Boy by the BarenakedLadies.  This song is in part about the chains of expectation—something both Mary Howard and Henry FitzRoy have to learn to sever, or accept.  But it’s also about bearing those expectations together.

Everything to Everyone by Everclear.  Because both Mary and Fitz try to hard to live up to the expectations placed on them, I figured both of them needed to hear this song.  Especially the line, “You’re blind to the fact that the hand you hold is the hand that holds you down.”

Letters to God by Boxcar Racer.  To me, this sounds like a song of someone who wishes he’d done more with his life—not ready for it to end.  It’s a trigger to inspire my characters to explore beyond the limitations set to them, because none of us wants to die without having really lived.

If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly.  The lyrics of this song speak for themselves.  So romantic, and yet so sad.

And…Ho Hey by the Lumineers.  Like I said at the beginning, I rarely listen to music while writing, but I had a terrible time with a particular scene in this novel.  I was on the fourth draft—reaching the end of what I could do with the book—and I needed inspiration.  I put my headphones on and listened to this song on repeat for almost an hour.  And I got the scene to where it needed to be.

Thanks so much Katy for sharing this playlist! I wanted to share all of the videos because I love your choices but this would have been a looonnngggg post lol!

About Katherine:

Katherine Longshore grew up on the northern California coast. At university, she created her own major in Cross-Cultural Studies and Communications, planning to travel and write. Forever. Four years, six continents and countless pairs of shoes later, she went to England for two weeks, stayed five years and discovered history. She now lives in California with her husband, two children and a sun-worshiping dog.

Where you can find Katherine.

Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive all 3 books signed International.

2 winners will receive signed copies of Brazen US Only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Week One:

6/2/2014- Literary Exploration- Review

6/2/2014- The Anne Boleyn Files- Guest Post

6/3/2014- Romantic Reads and Such- Interview

6/4/2014- Page Turners- Review

6/5/2014- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads- Guest Post

6/6/2014- Parajunkee's View- Interview

Week Two:

6/9/2014- Gone With The Words- Review

6/10/2014- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Interview

6/11/2014- Bewitched Bookworms- Guest Post and Review

6/12/2014- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

6/13/2014- Mundie Moms- Review

6/13/2014- Fiktshun- Interview

Dying to Read (51)- GATHERING DARKNESS by Morgan Rhodes

Hey y’all thanks for stopping by to see my Dying to Read post and of course as always I have to give credit to the lovely Jill over at Breaking the Spine for the Waiting on Wednesday Meme!

This week the book I’m dying to read is GATHERING DARKNESS by Morgan Rhodes! I am dying to finish this series I need to see what happens to my poor Magnus!!!

GATHERING DARKNESS

Morgan Rhodes

Release Date: December 9, 2014

Hardcover: 416 pages

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN: 978-1595147059

Goodreads/Amazon

In GATHERING DARKNESS, book three of the New York Times bestselling Falling Kingdoms series, the stakes have never been higher as three teams push forward on a race to find the Kindred, the four elemental crystals possessing ancient all-powerful magic, first:

TEAM WATCHER relies on King Gaius’s cruelty and Lucia’s powers to unlock the Kindred.
TEAM CLEO slays with sweetness and the secret that they hold the key to controlling Lucia’s overwhelming magic.
TEAM KRAESHIA will stop at nothing—including deceit and betrayal—to seize the Kindred and claim Mytica as their own.

Whoever wins will control the fate of Mytica—but fate can be fickle when magic is involved…

So what do you think? Will you be adding this to your pile? What are you dying to read this week?

2014 #YAMM Second Round Voting is Open!

Second round voting opens today! Make sure to pick your favorite!!

And go to the other sites to cast you votes for the other genres!

Paranormal- Katie’s BookBlog

Fantasy- The Book Cellar

Contemporary- Chick Loves Lit

VOTING CLOSED!

Voting ends Wednesday, March 19^th!

2014 #YAMM First Round Voting

First round voting opens today! Make sure to pick your favorites!! Voting ends Saturday, March 15th 8 PM EST.

And go to the other sites to cast you votes for the other genres!

Paranormal- Katie’s BookBlog

Fantasy- The Book Cellar

Contemporary- Chick Loves Lit


VOTING CLOSED!

Book Trailer- Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine

Hey y'all I just wanted to do a quick post about Rachel Caine's new book THE PRINCE OF SHADOWS. I am dying to get my hands on this book! It's a R&J retelling with a twist! It's told from Benvolio's (Romeo's best friend) POV and I am excietd!

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble
Release Date: February 4, 2014

A standalone built around the character of Benvolio, from Romeo and Juliet. The novel will be told from the point of view of Benvolio, who is Romeo’s cousin and, in Shakespeare’s play, attempts to get the lovelorn Montague interested in other girls after it’s discovered that Juliet is a member of the clan his family despises: the Capulets. Caine’s novel, her agent said, explores a scenario in which Romeo and Juliet are not the only couple to fall into dire romantic straits and is “a tale of intrigue, betrayal, hatred, and tragedy,” about “lovers lost, and lovers found.” 

And so here's the trailer!!!