Embrace Blog Tour

Hey thanks for stopping by today! We have an awesome music playlist post today with some video’s and some of our favorite bands made this one!!! Here’s some information for Embrace first then on to the music J

Published December 20th 2011 by Omnific Publishing

How far would you go to save the people you love?

Madison is familiar enough with change, and she hates everything about it. Change took her long-term boyfriend away from her. It caused one of her friends to suddenly hate her. It’s responsible for the death of a local along with a host of other mysterious happenings. But when Madison meets a hot new guy, she thinks her luck is about to improve.

Madison is instantly drawn to the handsome and intriguing Isaac Addington. She quickly realizes he’s a guy harboring a secret, but she’s willing to risk the unknown to be with him.

Her world really spins out of control, however, when her best friend becomes delusional, seeing things that aren’t there and desperately trying to escape their evil. When the doctors can’t find the answers, Madison seeks her own.

Nothing can prepare her for what she is about to discover.
Dangerous, intoxicating, and darkly romantic, Embrace is a thriller that will leave you spellbound.

Embrace playlist:

If Embrace came with a CD, the following songs would have to be on it. I hear them whenever I reach specific scenes in the novel.

1              Crash into Me by Dave Matthews Band

2             Get Some by Lykke Li

3             Friends and Family by Trik Turner 

4             Is This Real? By Lisa Hall 

5             Far Behind by Candle Box 

6             Fallin’ by Alicia Keys

7             Glycerine by Bush

8             Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

9             You Found Me by The Fray 

10           Silent Lucidity by Queensryche 

11            Higher by Creed

              Crash into Me by Dave Matthews Band

I’ve always loved the song Crash into Me. Truth be told, it reminds me of when my husband and I first started dating. He’d give me this sultry gaze, one that Isaac inherited. It’s the song that Isaac chooses to put on the first time he’s alone with Madison.

       You Found Me by The Fray  

You Found Me encompasses Madison’s feeling of being lost, but the thing I really like about Madison is that she’s not afraid to lean on her friends. This song can easily related to how much she needs Kaylee and Josh, how Kevin is willing to be there for her no matter what, and how Isaac will find Madison no matter how lost she becomes.

       Higher by Creed

Like Scott Stapp in the song Higher, Madison is willing to let Isaac and her friends help her escape to a new world, one you can’t see through normal eyes.

Cherie is always dreaming of romance and expressing her dreams in stories. She combined her passion for writing with her fascination of all things mythical to weave together a youth romance story that led to her debut novel, Embrace.

She lives with her family in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

Embrace website | Cherie’s blog | Goodreads | Twitter

Make sure to buy Embrace!

Oh and make sure to fill out the rafflecopter form for your chance to win Embrace!!!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jaime's Review of Darkness Before Dawn by JA London

Darkness Before Dawn

J.A. London

Paperback: 368 pages

Release Date: May 29, 2012

Publisher: Harper Teen

ISBN: 006202065X

Source: ARC from the SF/Sacramento Book review

Rating: Really Liked

From Goodreads. This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won. Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters.... Darkness Before Dawn is a fresh new story with captivating characters, unexpected plot twists, a fascinating setting, and a compelling voice. Written under the name J. A. London by a talented mother-son team, the trilogy is perfect for fans of True Blood and the House of Night and Morganville Vampires series.

If you read the synopsis above you’ll see it compared to the House of Night series and let me tell you right now this is nothing like the HON series at all! This is soo much better! I was a little scared to read this actually because it’s a dystopian vampire story and I just read Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules and I was worried I’d be comparing the two the whole time. There are some faint similarities but Darkness Before Dawn was a really good read!

The MC Dawn has been put thru the ringer losing her family and now she has this job she doesn’t want. I mean who would want to work with the very things that killed your family? But she doesn’t have a choice and I like that she has an inner strength and that she’s pretty rebellious. In the beginning I really liked both of the love interests (yep it’s a love triangle but no insta –love thank goodness) but by the end of the book I was definitely in love with Victor  gorgeous, tall, dark, mysterious, piercing blue eyes, loves old musicals, loyal, and vampire what’s not to love hehe. There were some things that were pretty predictable but overall I enjoyed the story and I’m very much looking forward to the second book!

I chose a passage between Dawn and Victor.

The lights are out, but a little moonlight is coming in through the balcony doors. It creates a safe haven for the sharing of secrets.

“Tell me a story. It’ll help me go to sleep,” I say.

“Once upon a time----“

“No,” I interject. “A real story. About you.”

“Once upon a time—don’t interrupt--- there was a vampire who wanted to touch the sun.” He combs his fingers through my hair. “One night he was walking through an alley when he thought he caught a glimpse of the sun wrapped in shadow… only it was a girl in need of rescuing. The first time he gazed into her blue eyes, he knew she had the power to destroy him. But he ignored the warnings, because she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.”

My breath is uneven. “But he must have seen a lot of girls in four hundred years.”

“He had. But none of them appealed to him like she did.”

“This vampire and this girl…do they get a happily ever after?”

“I don’t know. I told you that vampires lack imagination. So I don’t know how it ends.”

Or maybe he’s just too kind to tell me. Because he also told me that things between vampires and humans never end well.

Add Darkness Before Dawn to your Goodreads shelves.

Pre-Order your copy now!

Masque of The Red Death Blog tour and a Giveaway

Welcome to our stop on the Masque of the Red Death blog tour! Today we have the honor of hosting the amazing Bethany Griffin who answered some of Jaime’s burning questions about Masque, writing, and birthdays! Yep you heard that right, birthdays why you ask? Well not only is today our tour stop day but also Bethany’s birthday. Happy Birthday Bethany!!!!!! Yay *throws confetti* *cracks open the champagne* and because it’s Bethany’s birthday we’re giving away a present! One signed ARC of the Masque of the Red Death  a gorgeous bookmark, and an awesome leather wristband with a quote from the book!

On to the Q&A and we love Bethany’s answers!

1. Why Poe and why Masque? What made you decide to pick that instead of say…. The Fall of The House of Usher or The Tell Tale Heart?

Well, I don't have any reason NOT to write/retell any of Poe's other stories, but  there are a million reasons for Masque of the Red Death. The themes of Masque, trying to cheat death, the idea of a rich upper class trying to cheat death by partying while the world falls apart, these are relevant and timely, and...interesting. I've always loved dystopian and post-apocalyptic books, The Handmaid's Tale, The Stand, and The Giver are three of my all time favorite books. But I wasn't willing to even attempt any of those genres until I felt I had something interesting and unique. When I started re-reading Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, the ideas that were percolating in my head were (or at least seemed) unique and different, and that gave me the impetus to start this project. And once I started it, I really couldn't stop. I loved writing it. 

Jaime loved reading it J

2. Did you always plan on writing both of the male characters Will and Elliott to be so darned different but lovable? Usually in books there’s a clear choice whom the heroine should be with but in yours it’s almost impossible to choose.

Honestly, I don't know. I do love both of them in different ways. Elliott was fun because he is so messed up (you'll learn a bit more about that in book 2) and Will is mysterious and so different from you expect the first time you meet him. I loved writing them. And I agree with your assessment that there is no clear cut choice at the end of book 1. I had a basic plan for the story, but when I sat down to write the outline for book 2, I had to really second guess my choices and think about who she  would end up with and why. 

Ok dying to know here but we know we’ll have to wait…… (very impatiently)

3. The cover art for Masque is gorgeous!!! Was it love at first sight when you saw it? Is that what you pictured Araby looking like?

I thought it was beautiful when I saw it. But now that I've seen the effects, the glowing background and the raised lettering, the entire package of the book, I'm totally in love with it. I guess I see the girl on the cover as sort of symbolic representation of Araby, rather than like an exact portrait. That's really how I like to see characters on book covers, I guess, sort of symbolic and representational (which is another reason I LOVE my cover). 

We loved it too it’s very haunting and beautiful!

4. Oh and the Debauchery Club (loved it btw) how did you imagine this multi-leveled place with secrets and danger? Was there a location that you had maybe seen or is it all made up?   

 The Debauchery Club is based on Victorian Gentleman's clubs, or private clubs where people would have gone to drink and gamble, hang out? I don't know. I had a vague idea what those sort of places might be like, and then I changed it in ways that I thought were awesome and cool and worked for the story. Of course I needed the club to be open to females, and teenage girls at that. I'm pretty happy with it. I've seen a few reviewers who said that not enough Debauchery happens there...but I think we see enough. We see what Araby is okay with seeing. 

Haha Jaime thought it was perfect no one wants to see all the seedy things going on. Some things are better left to the imagination ;)

5. Did you listen to any music when you were writing Masque? What was your playlist?

Ah, the Playlist question. I don't actually listen to music while I write (okay, sometimes the LORT soundtrack, but don't tell anyone) but really, music with lyrics is distracting to me. When I do listen to music, is when I walk, and I amble around a lot when writing. When writing Masque I listened to a lot of Portishead, a lot of Nine Inch Nails, and quite a bit of Tool. 

Just had to say Hell Yes to Portishead, Tool, and Nine Inch Nails!!!! Jaime loves those bands and they totally popped into her head when thinking of the Debauchery club and certain other scenes.

6. So we know April 16^th is your birthday and it just happens to be our tour stop day ;) what was the best birthday present you ever received?

Oh wow, that's a good question. I'm not really a surprise person, I'm more of a carefully choose something and think about it for three months before the event happens sort of person, but, when I was in 6th grade, my grandmother took me to Hawaii over spring break, so for my birthday, which was the week before, my mom bought me this fancy underwater 35mm camera, complete with a variety of cases and accessories. It was awesome, and way too expensive for a 6th grader. 

Oh what a great mom and grandma! That would have been an awesome birthday!

7.  So we know you’re going to be in Salt Lake City for the Smart Chicks Kick It tour in September. What’s the rest of your tour schedule look like? And how excited are you to get out and meet your readers? 


 I'm going to be at BEA, and I'm checking for more information...if I don't get back to you on this email me! 

Oh poop we’re not going to BEA. Haha don’t worry we will ;)

8. Last question any tips for our aspiring writers out there? 

I think you just have to find the thing that's right for you. Masque is such a weird blend of all the genres I read growing up, and all this weird knowledge I have about different time periods. My first published book, which I'm still really proud of, was realistic contemporary, and I didn't have anything particularly new or insightful to add to that genre. It wasn't until I figured out what I could do that was different that I really found my voice/niche. So, find what you want to do...what you are good at...and don't ever stop trying. I've written a lot of manuscripts. 

Thanks so much Bethany for answering our questions! And happy birthday again hope your day totally rocks! Make sure to check out Jaime's review of Masque of the Red Death Here

Also thanks to Harper Teen for inviting us to be on the tour and the signed ARC of Masque that we’re giving away! To enter just fill out the rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure to check out all the other awesome blogs hosting the tour for some awesome posts and a few other chances to win a Signed Book!

4/17    http://amberinblunderland.blogspot.com                     

4/18    http://bookalicio.us                                                               

4/19    http://hobbitsies.net/wordpress                                

4/20   http://www.princessbookie.com                                   

4/23   http://www.spadeshighreads.com                                

4/24   http://www.goodbooksandgoodwine.com                    

4/25   http://www.hippiesbeautyandbooksohmy.com              

4/26   http://booktwirps.com                                                  

4/27   http://www.iceybooks.com                                             

The Immortal Rules: Sneak Peek

So as you may all know, both us absolutely loved, just loved Julie Kagawa's new book, The Immortal Rules, which is part of The Blood of Eden series. You can check out Patricia's Review HERE and Jaime's Review HERE.

The Immortal Rules will be released April 24th and we can hardly wait to get our hands on shiny new books! You can pre-order your copy HERE, you know we have! 

The Official Trailer & bloodofeden.com website for The Immortal Rules By Julie Kagawa will be released on Monday April 16th at 11am on Harlequin Teen Facebook! (https://www.facebook.com/HarlequinTEEN) 

In order to ease our wait we have a special sneak peek still from the trailer...

Pay close attention to The Immortal Rules Trailer!  It contains the code you will need to unlock exclusive content on http://www.bloodofeden.com/

Get ready to count the number of Blood of Eden symbols…

There will also be an awesome Immortal Rules Twitter Contest starting at 11am on Monday April 16th to celebrate the cool new website and trailer!  Follow @harlequinteen for details!

The Immortal Rules Synopsis:

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Jaime's Review of Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Of Poseidon

Anna Banks

Hardcover: 336 pages

Release Date: May 22, 2012

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)

ISBN: 1250003324

Source: ARC from Netgalley

Rating: Obsessed

From Goodreads. Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma’s gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . . Told from both Emma and Galen’s points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

Of Poseidon is one of the best mermaid books I’ve ever read (or as Galen says mermaid is a derogatory term so Syrena lol)! But back to my thoughts I literally devoured this book! I haven’t laughed or smiled so much while reading in a long time. My cheeks literally hurt after certain scenes and I got crazy looks from my family when a giggling fit would erupt. One of my favorite things about this book was it was told from both Emma and Galen’s POV’s I love a book with multiple POV’s.

The MC Emma was awesome! I loved that even though she was a bit clumsy she was brave and hilarious; some of the things that came out of her mouth had me reeling and I love that she wouldn’t put up with Galen’s crap most of the time. Galen is hotness personified tall dark and handsome with piercing violet eyes and he’s the serious side of the book but, his desire and passion left me in a puddle of goo. Two of my other favorite characters were Rayna and Toraf they both had me in stitches with laughter the book wouldn’t have been the same without them.

I adored this story of as Emma might say “Ohmysweetgoodness” this was awesome!!!I loved how the back-story of both Poseidon and Triton were told as well as Atlantis and that Emma is a Titanic nut. There’s an awesome part in the story that involves Titanic that made me say “aww” out loud and made me gush and tear up. The structure of the royal houses and their relationships was also told well and I can’t wait for book two because I think we’ll see more of that especially with that cliffhanger of and ending. Yes I said it. Yes Anna did, she wrote the dreaded cliffhanger but it was an amazing ending so I’ll forgive her ;)

I chose one of the passages that made me giggle between Emma and Galen.

I had to force a nervous laugh. “Well, the good news is, you don’t have to worry about me rejecting you anymore.”

He shakes his head. “That is good news. But you say it like it’s not”

I take a deep breath. Where is a good lightning bolt when you need one? Because even if I take a hundred deep breaths, this will still be humiliating….

“Emma?”

“I told my mom we’re dating,” I blurt. There. Doesn’t that feel better? Nope. Nope, it doesn’t

While his smile surprises me, it mostly mesmerizes me beyond rational thought. “Are you kidding?” he says.

I shake my head. “It’s the only thing she would believe. So now…now you have to pretend that we’re dating if you come to my house. But don’t worry, you don’t ever have to go over there again. And in a few days, I’ll pretend that we broke up.”

He laughs. “No you won’t. I told her the same thing.”

“Shut. Up.”

“Why? What’d I say?”

“No, I mean, did you really tell her that? Why would you do that?”

He shrugs. “Same reason you did. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Make sure to add Of Poseidon to your Goodreads shelves.

Pre-order it now you don’t want to miss this one!!!!!

Divergent Nation: Free Four and giveaways

Hey Divergent Nation! You all have been doing an awesome job clicking on those Candor Faction links! So keep up with the clicks and spreading the word.

We also have a new task: Free Four!

            Are Tris and Four your favorite literary couple. If you help us reach our preorder goal, we'll give you Four's insight into a key scene from DIVERGENT: 

            Can’t get enough of Four? Dying to hear more from him? If we reach 35,000 preorders of INSURGENT, HarperCollins will release a piece of never-before-seen original writing by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth—a pivotal scene from DIVERGENT retold from Four’s point of view (squeal)! Grab the widget, pre-order your copy today (if you’ve already pre-ordered, it counts toward our goal!) and spread the word to your friends. Let’s FREE FOUR, Divergent Nation!

Also make sure to stop over at our teammate’s blogs Good Choice Reading and Word Spelunker for their awesome giveaways and stay tuned there will be one here coming up next week!

Remember to keep sharing our links!

http://bit.ly/candorfaction

http://bit.ly/choose_candor

Jaime's Review of The Girl in The Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Kady Cross

Hardcover; 416 pages

Release Date: May 22, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

ISBN: 0373210531

Source: ARC from the publisher

Rating: Really liked

From Goodreads. In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling - or dangerous. Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves. One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens.

I’ll start by saying I loved The Girl in the Steel Corset  and I would have loved The Girl in the Clockwork Collar if Jack Dandy had been in it but, he wasn’t so instead of loving it I really liked it lol. Oh and one more thing this series really reminds me of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a movie I loved! Finley Jayne is one of those characters that if I had to be a fictional character I’d choose to be her. Yeah she’s got issues with her two halves and not knowing exactly who she is yet but girl’s got balls, she speaks her mind, and she’s not afraid of kicking some ass or getting hers kicked if it means saving someone she cares about. I also really love Emily, Jasper, Griff (swoons), and even Sam who I didn’t like very much in book 1.

So for the book itself the crew goes to Ney York to help Jas and what I love is Kady did her research it was as close to the real thing as she could get it. Jas is trying to save the girl he loves (Mei) and guess what peeps I freaking hated her from the moment I laid eyes on her and so did Finley lol. I really liked meeting Nicola Tesla with all of his eccentricities and even though he was a bad guy I really liked Dalton (I don’t know what it is with me and bad guys lately) the story is fast paced and fun. I love all the references to historical people like the Astor’s, and the US Marshal’s, ooh and the Irish street gangs too!  This is a great series to read if you’re curious about steampunk because it has a paranormal aspect to it as well!

I chose a passage between Finley and Jas because I love his cowboy-isms and there was no Jack passages lol.

Jasper eased his hold on the sandbag and leaned his cheek against the side of it as he looked at her. “You all right?”

Finley shrugged. “Yeah. It was just scary seeing him like that.”

“He does come across as somewhat invulnerable, don’t he?” Jasper smiled. “The two of you are like a twister colliding with a mountain.”

There was no need to ask which one of the two she was, Finley thought with a smile.

“I bet His Grace doesn’t like you being around Dalton very much.”

She leaned against the bag, as well. “You mean because Dalton’s so pretty? Maybe. He’d never admit it, though.”

Jasper arched a brow. “I meant because you seem to have a liking for fellas of dubious character. You like being on the wrong side of the law.”

A frown pinched between her eyebrows. “I do not like fellows of ‘dubious character’. And I’m not certain I like being accused of enjoying a life of crime.”

He tilted his head. “Tell me you don’t enjoy it.”

Add The Girl in the Clockwork Collar to your Goodreads shelves.

Pre-order it now!