Ascendancy blog tour + giveaway

Ascendancy by Karri Thompson 

 Published by Entangled Teen 

 Published on November 30th, 2015 

 Genre: YA Dystopian 

I’ve been lied to, deceived, and manipulated once again. I shouldn’t be surprised, but in a way I am. You’d think I’d be treated with dignity, my every desire fulfilled by those who need me the most. But instead, they plan to control me, keep me hidden, and force me to be complacent while I give birth over and over again. Hell, I’m the one who’s supposed to save humanity, right? I’m the one with the power to re-populate this world of clones, my ancestors who were produced from harvested DNA. Michael. He loves me. At this point, he may be my only friend. There may be others. Tension is building in the regions. A secret sect is growing. A rebellion is imminent. My awakening into this future should have been my savior, my renaissance, my ally. But instead, it has become my plague.  

Entangled Teen

 Amazon

B&N

 Indigo Books

  About the Author:

 Karri Thompson, a native of San Diego, California, grew up hanging out at the beach, playing sports, and eventually attending San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con or watching Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings movies for the umpteenth time, she can be seen doing normal people stuff like teaching high-school English, cooking delicious meals for her family (she attributes all of her culinary skills to the Food Network), and attending her son’s football games. In her spare time, she writes young adult and new adult fiction, her biggest passion, and loves listening to hard rock music and going to concerts. She hopes to live long and prosper, and that you will, too. 

Website: www.karrithompson.com 

 Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorkarrithompson?ref=hl 

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarriThompson 

 Instagram: authorkarrithompson   

  Read below for an excerpt from the book: 

 Michael was the only good thing to come out of my awakening. I didn’t know how long we’d have together, but I realized I wanted to make every second with him count. Twisting to face him, I brought my right leg to the other side of his body and kissed him gently at first, and then a little harder as he brought his hands to my back, massaging his fingers against my shoulder blades. His lips moved to my neck, and he slid his hand through the hair at the base of my head. I lay against him, savoring his warm breath at my throat as his chest pressed against mine. “Duck!” Cradling my body, he scrambled to the floor, bringing me down with him. “What?” I whispered. “I saw something outside. A shadow. It looked like a person.” “Victoria! I need to get her.” Crawling on my hands and knees, I entered the living room and picked up my sleeping baby. “Behind the couch. Let’s go.” “Watch her,” I said, and rested her on the floor next to Michael. Drawing the laser pistol from my waist, I scooted to the edge of the couch where I could see the back door. “I locked it,” he whispered, “but any Security guard or SEC can open it.” The door slid open. I aimed my pistol, my arms and hands trembling.   

  The Giveaway:

A signed copy of Ascendancy by Karri Thompson; open US only 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thief of Lies excerpt blitz.

Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers, #1) | Brenda Drake

Release date:  1/5/16

Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Library-Jumpers-Brenda-Drake/dp/1633752216

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/library-jumpers-brenda-drake/1121817874

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Library-Jumpers-Brenda-Drake/dp/1633752216

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17669243-library-jumpers?ac=1

Author Bio

Brenda Drake, the youngest of three children, grew up an Air Force brat and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother’s animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical. When Brenda’s not writing or doing the social media thing, she’s haunting libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops or reading someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).

http://www.brenda-drake.com/

https://twitter.com/brendadrake

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brenda-Drake/171424269657164

Excerpt:

I pressed the screen, and it went dark. “How do we know he’s not being forced to say this?”

                “The password, May Agnes guide you,” Lei replied. “She’s the patron saint of Asile.”

                Agnes? That was the silver woman’s name that formed from my globe. Did the saints have something to do with the Chiavi?

                I faced Ricardo. “How did you know I was here?”

                “The werehounds tracked your scent from a shirt Katy…excuse me, your nana…gave us.”

                “Can your pack help us save Couve?” Arik asked him.

                “They will, but Gia must go with me.” He noticed the protest forming on my lips. “Merlin said no exceptions. I’m to get you to the shelter.”

                From the corridor came yells, scuffles, and the continual wail of the warning siren.

                “I can’t go with you,” I said. “I have to fight with them.”

                “She can’t fight with us,” Lei said, glancing at the door. “She almost killed Kale.”

                I turned to Sinead. “You know what I can do.”

                Sinead gave me a pity smile. “Yes, but you have no control over it. Let Ricardo take you to your father and friends.”

                I thought of Kale lying motionless, near death, and I hated that she was right. As much as I wanted to stay, I might be more hindrance than help. I caved. “Okay,” I said, defeated. Lei flew out of the room with the Laniars on her heels.

                Sinead hugged me, then rushed after them. Arik moved over to me and cupped my face gently in his hands. His eyes held the intensity that always drew me to him.

                I swallowed my breath in anticipation. All the sounds around us went silent.

                He bent and lightly brushed my lips with a kiss. His lips were soft and oh, so tender. Butterflies swooped and curled inside me, and it felt like the ground disappeared from beneath my feet. He pulled back a little and said, “Regardless of the fact that you’re a royal pain in the arse, I fancy you. Listen to Ricardo and don’t do anything rash.”

                He gave me another kiss and rushed out the door. My heart twisted in my chest as he disappeared. I touched my mouth and exhaled. He liked me. It was against the laws, but he told me he fancied me. Maybe we had no future, but we had now.

                “What a sweet display,” Ricardo said, dragging me out of my haze. “I’m not one for rules or laws, but I’d be careful there. The punishment would be much worse for him than you.”

                “Why?” I stared at the door as if I’d see Arik there.

                “He’s a leader. He knows better.” Ricardo headed to the window. “Are you ready to fly?”

                “Did you say fly?”

The Casquette Girls Review + Blog Tour

 

The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden 

Published November 17th, 2015 

Published by Skyscape 

Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy 

Goodreads Website Amazon 

Find out more about signed copies HERE!

Seven girls tied by time. Five powers that bind. One curse to lock the horror away. One attic to keep the monsters at bay. 

After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne wants nothing more than her now silent city to return to normal. But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normalneeds a new definition. As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless . . . you’re immortal.  

About the Author

Alys Arden was raised by the street performers, tea leaf-readers, and glittering drag queens of the New Orleans, French Quarter. She cut her teeth on the streets of New York and has worked all around the world since. She either talks too much or not at all. She obsessively documents things. Her hair ranges from eggplant to cotton-candy-colored. One dreary day in London, while dreaming of running away with the circus, she started writing The Casquette Girls. Her debut novel garnered over one million reads online before being acquired by Skyscape in a two book deal. Rep’d by ICM. Website Twitter: @alysarden Facebook Blog

 The Book Trailer:

  The Giveaway 5 physical copies open US only. 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Casquette Girls: The Casquette Girls | Alys Arden

Published by: Skyscape, November 17th 2015

Genre: YA, Gothic, Paranormal, Witches, Vampires

Pages: 565

Format: Ebook

Source: Skyscape, via Netgalley

Seven girls tied by time.
Five powers that bind.
One curse to lock the horror away.
One attic to keep the monsters at bay.

**

After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne wants nothing more than her now silent city to return to normal. But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normalneeds a new definition. 

As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless . . . you’re immortal.

This book WAY exceeded my expectations. I thought it'd be a pretty cool gothic story but it's so much more. You need to add this to your to-read list immediately.

The first thing I loved about The Casquette Girls was the amazing writing, and how detailed the world building is. You can literally feel the author's love for New Orleans when you read this, and it made me fall in love with the city too (It's now added of my list of places to visit!) Along with the setting, the rich gothic tone of this book sucked me in. Plus there's a guy described as part James Dean part Italian Vogue and that always helps.

The book only got better the more I read it, and while I could have done without the love triangle (I still don't trust or like Isaac...) I ADORED Nicco, my precious Italian child. I actually loved most of the characters, both past and present, and instead of just being implanted in a setting and reacting to it like in most books I read, these characters felt like they were part of the city, like they'd truly lived there their whole lives. They were as strange and wonderful as all the part of New Orleans I loved. AND the minor characters were as vibrant and interesting as some of the main characters! AND the romance is sweet and dangerous and everything I ever wanted (Nicolo, my love!!) AND the plot is tense and suspenseful and mysterious, and there's betrayal and plot twists (that I totally called way earlier!) and witches and girls being amazing friends. This book is perf. 
(EXCEPT FOR THE ENDING. DO NOT READ THAT EVER.)

If you're looking for a YA gothic that literally feels like you're reading Dracula in places, this is the book for you. If you're not looking for that, read it anyway.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world-building ★★★★★

Writing ★★★★☆

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Top Five Reasons to Swoon Over Jack Vincent of Night Owls + ARC Review

I am crazy happy to have a guest post from Jenn Bennett, author of Night Owls, on Syntax Reviews today. I read this book in a blur and loved everything about it - especially Jack. (He's super cute but swoony at the same time and if you want to know more about him, this post is for you.)

Top Five Reasons to Swoon Over Jack Vincent of Night Owls

 No matter what you’re looking for in a hero, there’s practically a smorgasbord of hot boys in YA literature. Want a tough footballer with a heart of gold or the shy guy who can write all the poetry to melt your heart? What about the damaged rich kid with the horrible abusive parents or that cute boy next door with one month to live? You found him, you read him, you wept all the tears, and now you’re ready for your next book boyfriend. Could Jack be the one? Let’s find out, shall we?

…………….

Reason #5: Jack Vincent is an anonymous seventeen-year-old graffiti artist who’s been spray-painting enormous gold words across San Francisco (BEGIN, FLY, BELONG, JUMP) under the Golden Apple tag, attracting attention of local media—not to mention the police. No one can figure out what the words mean, exactly, but he’s got the whole city buzzing. (Admit it: this is kind of cool.) No one knows who is is…until my heroine, Bex, meets him on a midnight bus and puts two and two together.

Reason #4: One word: pompadour. I mean, come on. Bex jokingly describes Jack as the offspring of David Beckham and James Dean. He wears a vintage leather jacket, has great boots, and is into Rockabilly music, which will always be cool.

Reason #3: Think you’ve got him pegged as a rebel and a bad boy? Think again. He’s a vegetarian and a self-described “really bad Buddhist.” Jack’s dealing with something super depressing at home. I can’t tell you what it is, because that would be a huge spoiler. But trust me, it’s not fun or easy. A lot of people in his situation might have reacted differently—lashed out, drowned their troubles in drugs or alcohol, given up trying at school. Instead, Jack started going to meditation classes at the local Zen Center. He’s not very good at being a Buddhist, which he fully admits, and his teachers probably wouldn’t be down with his whole secret graffiti agenda, but he tries.

Reason #2: The boy can kiss. If Jack and Bex’s first kiss doesn’t melt you into a pool of goo on the floor, then you aren’t alive. (Did I mention that this book is sex-positive? It is. Big time.)

Reason #1: He’s madly, passionately, CRAZY in love with Bex. He knows it from the first time they meet on the bus. He does stupid (illegal) things to prove himself to her and get her attention.  He doesn’t try to make her jealous with other girls, and when something from his past comes up, he immediately clears it up, because he does not want to lose Bex. And best of all, he likes Bex for who she is—quirky, kind of weird, kind of dark, and a girl who’s got her own agenda and goals. He supports that. He’s cool with that. Heck, he even helps her.  That’s swoon-worthy gold, right there, folks.

His name is Jack Vincent, and he’s your next book boyfriend!

Night Owls | Jenn Bennett
Published in the US as The Anatomical Shape of A Heart

Published by: Simon & Schuster UK, August 13th 2015

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Pages: 272

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster UK

Feeling alive is always worth the risk.

Meeting Jack on the Owl—San Francisco's night bus—turns Beatrix's world upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive...and possibly one of San Francisco's most notorious graffiti artists.

But Jack is hiding a piece of himself. On midnight rides and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who this enigmatic boy really is.

I wanted to read Night Owls pretty much as soon as I learned the main character was into anatomy and wanted to get into a Willed Body department to draw the cadavers. That's not the kind of heroine you find everyday. I hoped - rightly! - that her interest in anatomy would only be the start of this book's charm and quirks. I did not, however, expect Jack.

The love interest in this made me swoon and squee and make a tonne of ridiculously cheesy grins. He flips from being adorable, to being haunted, to being hot as hell without warning and it totally took me off guard. He charmed me, well and truly, and because of Jack I fell in love with Night Owls (I do think the US title fits the book better than ours but I'm nitpicking.) Reading this book just felt real, in a way I've wanted a bunch of contemporary books to before - but they never did, and this book achieved the impossible. I loved everything, the anatomy stuff, the family issues (what? I liked issues? Who has this book made me into?) because they weren't run of the mill, because they were interesting.

Other things I liked: Bex's gay brother (thank you for the diversity), Jack's mentally ill sister (also thank you for the inclusion), kids using public transport (because hella realistic), how every minor character had their own life (Bex's boss was my fave), and how the relationship grew at a natural pace, sparked merely by curiosity about Jack's nighttime activities (I wanted to know EVERYTHING about him too.)

This book was everything I hoped for and never expected to get. My favourite contemporary, for the swoony love interest, the awesome and complex and wholly interesting main character, and for the romance. Dear lord, the romance. Read this immediately.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★★☆

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