Release Day Blast! WHITE HOT KISS by Jennifer L. Armentrout and a Giveaway!!!

We are beyond excited to participate in the Release Day Launch for Jennifer L. Armentrout's WHITE HOT KISS! WHITE HOT KISS is a young adult paranormal romance being published by Harlequin Teen TODAY! This is the first full-length novel in The Dark Elements Series and one you'll want to grab as soon as you finish reading this post.   

ABOUT WHITE HOT KISS: 
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One kiss could be the last. Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses. Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on since forever. Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul. But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne…it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.  

  EXCERPT

“I don’t think of Zayne that way!” She laughed. “What man-parts-loving female in this world doesn’t think of Zayne that way? I can barely keep myself breathing when I see him. All the guys in school have squishy waists. I can tell Zayne doesn’t. He’s the awesome sauce with extra sauce.” That he was and he so didn’t have a squishy waist, but I tuned Stacey out at that point. I really did need to cram for this test and I also didn’t want my fantasies involving Zayne to occupy my mind right now. Especially after I’d woken up this morning, carefully tucked under the covers. The bed had smelled like him: sandalwood and crisp linen. 

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus in a manger,” Stacey murmured. 

I clenched my jaw, cupping my hands over my ears. She jabbed me in the side with her elbow. At this rate I’d be covered in bruises before lunchtime. “Our bio class just got a billion times more interesting. And hotter, lots and lots hotter. Holy mother, I want to have his babies. Not now of course, but definitely later. But I’d like to start practicing soon.” 

The cell wall is a thick and rigid layer covering the plasma something, something plant cells… Stacey stiffened all of a sudden. “Oh my God, he’s coming—” Composed of fat and sugar— Something slender and shiny fell from who knew where, landing in the middle of Sam’s notes. Blinking tightly, it took me a couple of seconds to recognize the faded and half peeled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sticker covering the back of the silver cell phone. My heart slammed against my ribs. Gripping the edges of the notebook, I slowly lifted my gaze. Unnaturally beautiful golden eyes met mine. “

You forgot this last night.” 

Now that you have a taste for this fabulous new series, here are the details for the AMAZING international giveaway!!! Harlequin Teen is giving away a large Harlequin Teen Tote. Tote Includes: • Harlequin TEEN branded tote • The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa (trade) • Pawn by Aimee Carter (hard cover) • Crash Into You by Katie McGarry (hard cover) • Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter (hard cover) • 2 copies of White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout • 1 pair of black harlequin branded socks (they are so comfy!)  

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 About Jennifer L. Armentrout:
# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV.   She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.   
  
Links:   Series Website /Website/ Twitter/ Facebook/Jennifer L. Armentrout Goodreads 

Blog Tour- DEATH SWORN by Leah Cypess and a Giveaway!

I am so excited to be able to host a stop on the DEATH SWORN Blog Tour! Leah is deep in her editing cave but we wanted to do something for this amazing book so a few of us bloggers and fans decided to do our own posts with Leah's go ahead of course!! I loved this book and am dying to get my hands on book 3! Make sure to enter the giveaway below for a copy of the book courtesy of Leah!
Haven't heard of DEATH SWORN? Check it out!

DEATH SWORN

Author: Leah Cypess

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Pages: 352

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.

But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

Now on to the  post!

I thought a  lot about what to write about and I decided to pick one of my favorite scenes. I'm titling this "Dancing with an Assassin."

I love this scene and I picked a song for you to listen to while reading it so make sure to click "play" on the video before you start reading!

A sudden Soaring melody pierced the cavern, followed by a fast rhythmic beat. She turned and Saw two boys in the corner, one with a flute, the other pounding at a pair of drums. She didn’t recognize them--they were too young to be her students; eleven or twelve years old, maybe? The flute player had fiery red hair and an angelic face. Did all assassins learn an instrument? Or was he being prepared for a specific mission?

“lt's an Arcaian dance song,” Sorin said, and she turned back to him. He was watching her with the oddest expression on his face--as if it mattered what she thought of this strange Party. As if he cared whether, right now, she was happy.

That was delusion. Delusion, and wine. Sorin was a killer. But he didn't look like one, right now, as he held his hand out to her.

She decided not to think about it--not thinking about things was feeling wonderful, and the wine and music made it easy. She took his hand.

"Arcaians truly know how to dance,” Sorin said, shouting now over the sound of the music—and the whoops of the others as they began to leap out on the floor. "Be glad you don’t know the words of this song, though.”

“Who says I don’t?” Ileni retorted. An Assassin whirled past them, launching himself off the rock floor and tumbling over twice in midair before landing lightly on his feet.

Sorin rolled his eyes and took her other hand. His hand was fine boned, but rough and calloused. He pulled her close with casual strength and grinned down at her.

He was closer to her than he had ever been, his arms encircling her with unyielding strength. She could feel his breath as he spoke. "Can sorcerers dance?"

She lifted her chin to stare up into his face. "l think you’re about to find out."

Actually, sorcerers couldn’t dance--not in the athletic graceful way the assassins could-but it didn’t matter. Sorin held her close and refrained from the complex acrobatics the other assassins were showing off with. They whirled around the cave floor to the tune of the music. Sorin looked down at her with his lips pressed together but curved upward at the corners. The music worked its way into lleni's blood, and she moved to its beat without really thinking. the fabric of her skirt brushing rhythmically against her legs. Exhilaration rushed through her, fueled by the music and the movement and the press of Sorin's hands against her lower hack. Every time he pulled her close she it felt like another draught of wine, making her reckless and giddy.

“Does your master know about this?” she asked at one point, when her cheek was inches form Sorin’s.

“Of course.” Sorin said. He pushed her away, twirled her around, pulled her close again. 

“But Don’t worry he never comes. He knows we need some small freedoms.”

Not true freedom, of he knows about it. But who was she to talk? She had chafed against some of her training restrictions, back in the sorcerer’s compound; she had broken the rules often enough to be with Tellis. Small freedoms, every one of them, nothing that would have scandalized the Elders had they found out. For all her little rebellions, she had been content to be what she was being molded to be.

And she didn’t want to argue with Sorin now. He grabbed both her hands, and she leaned back into the swing. As her head fell back, her hair flying out behind her, she scanned the cavern. She was still looking for lrun, but her eye fell instead on Bazel. The round-faced assassin was not part of the dancing. He stood in a corner, near the piles of weapons, small and furtive. Every once in a while, one of the other assassins would walk up to him, and Bazel would hand him something too small for Ileni to see.

Sorin followed her gaze and grimaced. “Would you prefer to dance with your favorite?”

I hope you liked!! This one of my favorite scenes and songs!

About Leah:

I wrote my first story in first grade. The narrator was an ice-cream cone in the process of being eaten. In fourth grade, I wrote my first book, about a girl who gets shipwrecked on a desert island with her faithful and heroic dog (a rip-off of both The Black Stallion and all the Lassie movies, very impressive).

After selling my first story (Temple of Stone) while in high school, I gave in to my mother’s importuning to be practical and majored in biology at  Brooklyn College. I then went to Columbia Law School and practiced law for almost two years at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, a large law firm in New York City. I kept writing and submitting in my spare time, and finally, a mere 15 years after my first short story acceptance, I sold my first novel to Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins).

I live in Brookline, Massachusetts (right outside of Boston) with my husband Aaron, a researcher and doctor at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and our three children.

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

Website

Giveaway Details:

1 Grand Prize pack signed copies of all 3 of Leah’s books (Mistwood, Nightspell, and Death Sworn), plus signed SWAG for all 3 books as well! US Only.

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Tour Schedule

Week One:

2/24/2014- Two Chicks on Books- Original Content

2/25/2014- Mundie Moms-Original Content

2/26/2014- Bookish- Original content

2/27/2014- Fiktshun- Original Content

2/28/2014- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads-Review or Original Content

Week Two:

3/3/2014- Supernatural Snark- Original content

3/4/2014- Page Turners - Original Content

3/5/2014- Tales of a Ravenous Reader- Original content

3/6/2014- YA Sisterhood- Review

3/7/2014- A Backwards Story- Original content      

STEADFAST Chapter Reveal Week is Starting!!!!

I am so excited to take part in the reveal of chapters 1-4 of Steadfast for Claudia Gray! Each day this week a different blog will have a chapter from the book! Check out the schedule below and also there will be giveaways on each site!
Haven't heard of STEADFAST? Check it out!

STEADFAST

Author: Claudia Gray

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Pages: 352

Publisher: HarperTeen

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

The second book in the dazzling Spellcaster series from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray is perfect for fans of the Beautiful Creatures and Hex Hall series.

Nadia, Mateo, and Verlaine saved Captive's Sound from the dark sorceress Elizabeth . . . or so they thought. But despite their best efforts, a crack opened and a new, greater evil seeped through. With Mateo as her Steadfast, Nadia's magic is magnified but her training is still incomplete. And a darker magic has begun to call Nadia. . . .

With her Steadfast, Mateo, and her best friend, Verlaine, Nadia must fight the black magic that tempts her and stop the One Beneath before he comes to claim what is his.

About Claudia:

Claudia Gray is a pseudonym. I would like to say that I chose another name so that no one would ever learn the links between my shadowy, dramatic past and the explosive secrets revealed through my characters. This would be a lie. In truth, I took a pseudonym simply because I thought it would be fun to choose my own name. (And it is.)

I write novels full-time, absolutely love it, and hope to be able to do this forever. My home is in New Orleans, is more than 100 years old, and is painted purple. In my free time I read, travel, hike, cook and listen to music. You can keep up with my latest releases, thoughts on writing and various pop-culture musings via Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, GoodReads or (of course) my own home page.

If you want to contact me, you can email me, but your best bet is probably to Tweet me. I don’t do follows on Twitter, but I follow everyone back on Tumblr, Pinterest and GoodReads.

Website

Here's the Schedule!!!!!

Week One:

 2/25/2014- Mundie Moms- Chapter 1       

2/26/2014- Jean Book Nerd- Chapter 2

2/27/2014- HERE!!!- Chapter 3

2/28/2014- Novel Novice- Chapter 4

Guest Post- Anne Leonard talks about Dragons and a Giveaway!

I am freaking stoked to have Anne Leonard here today! When I was contacted by Viking Books about MOTH AND SPARK asking if I'd love to host a guest post and a giveaway my reaction was heck yes! Not only is this a high fantasy book and right up my alley but Anne is a Northern California author and I love to support my Nor Cal peeps!
Haven't heard of MOTH AND SPARK? Check it out!

Title: MOTH AND SPARK

Author: Victoria Scott

Publisher: Scholastic

Pages: 320

Pub. Date: February 25, 2014

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes& Noble

A prince with a quest. A commoner with mysterious powers. And dragons that demand to be freed—at any cost.

Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control. 

Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in the capital that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming to Caithen. 

Torn between Corin’s quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, the lovers must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and a rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.

Now on to the post!

What Makes Dragons Interesting

Kind of obviously, the big lure about dragons is that they both fly and breathe fire. Flying is something that people want to do. I think it’s pretty primal. It seems liberating to be able to move in three dimensions, plus it gives you the opportunity to see – almost the opposite experience of hiding in a cave from things that might eat you. Fire is similarly primal – it brings heat, and light, and safety, but at the same time it can be wildly destructive. So it’s not very surprising that human imagination would conceive of a creature with both flight and flame, nor that the creature would lodge itself so firmly in stories. The dragon seems all-powerful in a way that other mythical beasts don’t, because it controls air and fire.

The dragon also has significance as a hoarder of treasure and a destroyer of cities.  It’s a great metaphor; one of my favorite scenes in fantasy literature is in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Eustace gets transformed into a dragon because he was having dragonish thoughts. It works as a metaphor because the dragonish thoughts of greed and revenge and the lust for power are so human. I think the dragon that embodies the worst traits of human beings is probably essential to the human psyche; stories of dragon slaying give hope.

But dragons that are really humans with scales and claws are not as intriguing to me as dragons that are different from humans, so my dragons don’t horde treasure. I like observing animals, and I think that part of it is because animal consciousness is so unknown to me. Mostly I anthropomorphize my cats, but once in a while I get a glimpse of them doing something that is purely animal and instinctive, and I become very aware that these creatures, these beasts, are not like me at all. It’s always a rather humbling experience, because I realize how much mystery there is about life. Dragons, because they are mythical, distant, imaginary, encapsulate the unknown really well.

When I started creating my dragons, I needed to find a way to make them strange, and I thought about their nature as reptiles. A lot of people are freaked out by snakes. I, on the other hand, like them.  I don’t want to encounter any cobras or cottonmouths or large anacondas in the wild, but a five foot long ball python is a really amazing creature to hold. The skin doesn’t feel rough at all – it’s almost silky. And watching and feeling the snake’s muscles moving is fascinating. But it’s also nothing like petting a furry mammal. So when I was writing about dragons, I remembered holding snakes and tried to apply those physical sensations to touching the dragons.

Communication was another issue. Snakes are a lot more alien to us than cats are. When my cat rubs me, purring, I am almost 100% sure he’s hungry. I’ve never been able to fathom a reptile’s desires or motives or emotions. I tried to impart that sense of strangeness to interactions with dragons. The plot required the dragons to be able to communicate effectively with humans, but if they could actually talk, some of their alien nature was lost. I settled on a language of images, communicated telepathically. There are times in the book when the dragons’ language is expressed in words, but that’s essentially because the characters’ minds are translating the images into words. (The dragons also have sounds which they use when talking to each other.) Speech itself takes place on a deep, non-verbal level. On the one hand, the dragons are animal-like; on the other, their thoughts are too complex for humans to understand. Even though my dragons are able to communicate with people, there is something inherently unknowable about them.

One final aspect of dragon-creation that I considered was magic. Going back to The Hobbit, one sees that there is not much magic in the book (aside from the Ring); the fantasy lies mostly in the creatures of Middle-earth, not in Gandalf doing his wizard-thing. Smaug is mortal and is killed with an arrow. I could have made my dragons purely non-magical beasts, like Smaug, but I wanted to add another layer of mysteriousness, so I gave them their own world, a realm beyond human perception, where time and space don’t function as they do in our earthly experience. There are only hints of this in Moth and Spark, partly because this was one of the places where I ran into my own limitations as an author (how does one describe the indescribable?), but it’s underneath. The dragons you see aren’t the dragons there are.

I want to end with a short quotation from the book: “It did not know compassion, nor did it know evil or selfishness. It had neither loyalty nor blame. She stood in its shadow and watched the sparks flicker along its body. It was terrifying and beautiful, and she could speak to it.” For me it’s this, the terror and the beauty side by side that makes dragons compelling creatures of myth and story. They’re an intersection point between human experience and human imagination. Through their strangeness, they show us what it is to be powerful, and they remind us what it is to be human.

Thanks Anne! I love dragons!!

About Anne:

Elisabeth Anne Leonard was born in Chicago and has lived numerous places since. After receiving her MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, she obtained her Ph.D. in English literature and published several scholarly works with an emphasis on race in science fiction and fantasy. Eventually she ended up in law school, where in the short intervals when she was not studying she started writing the book that became Moth and Spark. She practiced as a lawyer before selling the novel and turning to full-time writing. Her other creative outlet is photography. She lives in Northern California with her husband, son, and two black cats. Her website is http://anneleonardbooks.com, and she can be found on twitter at @anneleonardauth.

Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 finished copy of MOTH AND SPARK US Only

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Blog Tour- GRIM Anthology and a Giveaway!

I am so excited to take part in the blog tour for the GRIM Anthology! I love fairy tale retellings and the 3 stories that I am covering today are all really good! I have 3 mini reviews for you and also I'm going to talk about how they comepare to the originals! Make sure to enter the giveaway below for a Harlequin Teen Prize Pack that includes GRIM and other great Harlequin Teen Books!
Haven't heard of GRIM? Check it out!

Title: GRIM

Author: Multiple

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 480

Pub. Date: February 25, 2014

Goodreads|Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | Indiebound | Book Depository

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today:

Kimberly Derting | Sonia Gensler | Tessa Gratton | Claudia Gray | Rachel Hawkins | Amanda Hocking | Ellen Hopkins| Shaun David Hutchinson  | Julie Kagawa | Malinda Lo | Myra McEntire |Saundra Mitchell | Jackson Pearce | Sarah Rees Brennan | Jon Skovron | Jeri Smith-Ready

Edited by Christine Johnson

Short Stories

1.       The Key by Rachel Hawkins

2.     Figment by Jeri-Smith Ready

3.     The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo

4.    The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron

5.     Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell

6.    Before The Rose Bloomed: A Retelling of the Snow Queen by Ellen Hopkins

7.     Beast / Beast by Tessa Gratton

8.    The Brothers Piggett by Julia Kagawa

9.     UnTethered by Sonia Gensler

10. Better by Shaun David Hutchinson

11.    Light It Up by Kimberly Derting

12.  Sharper Than A Serpent's Tongue by Christine Johnson

13.  A Real Boy by Claudia Gray

14. Skin Trade by Myra McEntire

15.  Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan

16. The Pink: A Grimm Story by Amanda Hocking

17.  Sell it Out by Jackson Pearce

Now on to the reviews I'll talk about which retellings they are in my comparison after the reviews!

THE KEY was what I expected from Rachel Hawkins. A good story although I had a hard time pinning down the retelling I knew what it was supposed to be but it was so short it was hard to nail it down. I always like her writing. The only complaint I have is that it was way too short I wanted more. Rating: Liked!

You put something of Jeri Smith-Ready's in my hands and I will DEVOUR it! Just as I did with FIGMENT. This is another that I had a hard time figuring out the retelling but whatever I didn't really care what it was because it was AWESOME!!!! I adored Eli and "Fig" and it totally made me cry. Rating: OBSESSED!!!!!!

THE TWELFTH GIRL....Now this one I knew right away what it was and I loved the modern update Malinda did! It reminded me of the original with a really nice twist. I loved the darkness she brought into this tale and I really wanted to read more. If Malinda wrote a whole story about this I would snatch it up right away! This is the first book by Malinda I've read and she's an amazing writer I plan on picking up all of her books now! Rating: LOVED


Ok so let me tell you a little secret. I love Fairy Tales! Yeah the ones adapted for Disney are cool but I love the originals much more! I loved the darkness and the fear they instilled in children because they weren't the happily ever after tales that as a child we all wanted to be true. The originals were told to scare kids but they were rooted in real life. Children disappeared, men married women to turn around and kill them, and sometimes people just had awesome luck to only have it fail after a year or so. That's what I love about these they're not sugar coated HEA's. The authors in this antho especially Hawkins and Lo brought the darkness and embraced it. 

Hawkins story THE KEY was roughly based off of Bluebeard and it was really good! I wanted to have more of Skye though; his motives were unclear and I didn't understand how or why he was the way he was. I did want more though the ending was very open ended. 

Lo's THE TWELFTH GIRL was The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a modern update that I loved! She went way darker than the original and I loved the twist I also wanted more of this! And I loved that the "castle" was a dorm in an upscale prep school!

Jeri Smith-Ready's was the hardest to nail down but I mean it had a cat wearing boots so maybe a take on Puss in Boots? But he/it was also someone who inspired people so I came to think of him/it as a muse. So maybe Puss in Boots with a bit of the 9 sisters mixed in. Regardless I freaking loved it!!

Giveaway Details:

Contest Info:  

Each tour stop is offering up a copy of GRIM, and one winner will receive a fantastic Grand Prize Package including the following Harlequin Teen titles: 2 copies of GRIM, a copy of WHITE HOT KISS by Jennifer Armentrout, THE SECRET DIAMOND SISTERS by Michelle Madow, THE QUEEN’S CHOICE by Cayla Kluver and an ARC of  LET’S GET LOST by Adi Alsaid.

Please enter via the Rafflecopter form. Giveaway is open to US/Canada and ends March 7th.

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Tour Schedule

Week One:

Monday, February 17th - Harlequin Paranormal Blog

Tuesday, February 18th - Stories 1, 2 and 3 - Two Chicks on Books

Wednesday, February 19th - Stories 4, 5 and 6 - Book and A Latte

Friday, February 21st - Stories 7, 8 and 9 - Fiction Freak

Week Two:

Monday, February 24th - Stories 10, 11 and 12 - Mundie Moms

Wednesday, February 26th -  Stories 13, 14 and 15 - Bumbles and Fairytales

Friday, February 28th -  Stories 16 and 17 - Fiktshun

For more info about the guest posts you can direct your readers to the Tour Page

Tour Hosted by

Ooh there's a trailer now check it out!!!