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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Fun Summer Read

Here's a book I stumbled across today that looks very interesting.




Emma has always tried to be perfect in her almost eighteen years of existence, but it has never been good enough for her mother and stepfather. As she finds herself counting the days until she’s officially free from her parents’ reins, her stepfather hands her a plane ticket explaining that she must attend the Re-Boot Camp in the wilds of Alaska. 

Once she lands in the middle of nowhere, she realizes the camp is nothing like she imagined, and she wants out immediately. 

That is until she meets Liam. 

The camp is full of teens with dark pasts, but she finds herself drawn to Liam’s ability to see who she really is and who she wants to become. While Emma and Liam begin adjusting to a place neither wants to be, frightening events begin to unfold. When people begin disappearing, it becomes apparent they can only trust one another as they fight for survival.

To make it even better, it's on sale for $.99 on both Amazon and B&N. PLUS, the author is doing a giveaway on her site. Visit her at http://blog.karicebolton.com/ to enter.

Show an author a little love. Visit her site today!

Oh, and while you're buying her book, add a few more to your cart ;-)


Monday, April 15, 2013

YA Submissions

My friends at TMP are open to submissions for a new YA anthology: Love is a Battlefield. If you're interested, here are the details.


Love Is a Battlefield

TMP YA Anthology
Summer 2014
WANTED: Seasoned YA authors who yearn for a challenge or YA writers who want to break into the world of publishing. Wow us with your story for our new YA anthology, Love is a Battlefield. This collection will be available both digitally and in print.
Young Adult readers love angst. And what’s better than a book full of angst. Love is a Battlefield will consist of 8-10 YA short stories (5K to 8K word count) that tug at the heart strings. We want strong heroines who are willing to fight for what they want.
Submit a polished short story to yasubmissions@turquoisemorning.com. Please allow 6-8 weeks from submission date for us to get back with you on the progress of your story. 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Collector review


I discovered this book from an email sent out by BookBub. I believe it was free.

Here's the blurb from GoodReads:
He makes good girls...bad. 

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.

My thoughts:
I love this book and had a hard time putting it down in order to feed my family! The hero, if you can call him that, is snarky, smooth and confident and I couldn't get enough of him. And I really enjoyed watching him change throughout the story. 

I haven't read many books from a male's perspective and I have to say I felt most of the feelings and dialogue were spot on. Guys are dorks!

I'm eager to continue this series but am bummed I have to wait until August 2013!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Gone Girl Review

I may have mentioned starting a book club with some friends. We started with Divergent, which we totally loved. March, we read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I'm not one for dark suspense and from what I understand, this book is by far less intense compared to her other titles.


Blurb from GoodReads.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.


What our book club thought:
It was simple, they loved it. I think a major seller for us is we are Missouri Girls who make soup casseroles and eat Fritos. One or two admitted to finding the story a bit predictable, knowing early on what the outcome would be. But the general consensus was they couldn't put the book down. We later discussed aspects of the book we found interesting; did we ever think so and so committed the crime, what would we have done, do we plan on reading her other titles.
We did all enjoy the idea of a he-said, she-said sides of the story which offered much conflict in the book and kept some of us guessing.

My thoughts:
I tend to read very quickly and thought I was clever in not reading this book until closer to our meeting. WRONG! I didn't finish the book until a few hours before we met. Why? Even though I gave the book 4 stars on GR (the writing is very good as well as the story) I wasn't as engaged. I think because it's not my normal go-to genre, which is the point of the book club. I enjoyed the quirky comments and tangents, finding most of them funny but after the author did it a few times, I began to find them boring. Yeah, yeah, everything has a story. Hell, we all have those moments but I kept wanting to skip the tangents and get on with it.
And unlike my group, I liked the wife. I felt if my husband did to me what hers did to her, I'd hope to have guts or be creative enough to do something. Maybe not on such a grand production like in this book, but something. I liked her gumption.

Our next book: Paranoia by Joseph Finder.