Blog Tour: In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

 

                                                                                
Book Description

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.
             
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Cat Winters

Interview:

1.Describe your book in one sentence?

In 1918, a sixteen-year-old girl must face a world war, a deadly flu, and the ghost of her first love.

2. What inspired you to write the book?

When I was twelve, I learned about two girls in England who, in 1917 and 1920, fooled the world into thinking they had photographed fairies in their backyard. Even educated grown-ups believed the girls' photos were genuine because they desperately needed an escape from the horrors of World War I.

That strange and sad history fascinated me, and when I grew up, I again stumbled upon those fake fairy photos, this time in a magazine article that also described the popularity of séances during the time period. It would take me several manuscript attempts before I came up with a plot that I felt did justice to this early-twentieth-century belief in spirits and supernatural photos, but that's how In the Shadow of Blackbirds first came into being.

3. Favorite character, why?
I have a soft spot in my heart for my protagonist, Mary Shelley Black. She can be stubborn and short-tempered at times, but she's also curious and compassionate and would go to the ends of the earth to help someone she loves. Plus she's really handy to have around the house. She loves to take things apart and figure out how to fix them, so whenever one of my own household appliances has a problem, I wish my brain was a little more like hers.

4. Your most anticipated book/s to read this year?
I still need to catch up on some 2012 releases I've been dying to read, like Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL and Elizabeth Wein's CODE NAME VERITY. Ruta Sepetys's OUT OF THE EASY is currently sitting on my to-read pile, calling my name. Through my involvement in the group The Lucky 13s, I've gotten the chance to read early copies of several books by 2013 debut YA and middle-grade novelists, and I can honestly say that this is an outstanding year for diverse and gripping new fiction.

5. Favorite Starbucks drink?
Tall hot chocolates. I'm not a coffee fan, but I have a weakness for coffeehouse hot chocolates topped with whipped cream. Yummm...

                

Spotlight: Teardrop (Teardrop #1) by Lauren Kate

   Book Description:  

Never, ever cry. . . . Eureka Boudreaux's mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn't, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before.

But Ander doesn't know Eureka's darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance—a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth . . . and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined. From Lauren Kate comes an epic saga of heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets, and dark magic . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away.

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                                                                                  Lauren Kate

    Interview:

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Thank you. The greatest compliment a writer can hear is that his or her work has inspired readers to read more and/or write more. Every great writer was first a great reader. Other books are writers’ best teachers; they teach us how to craft a villain, how to develop a singular voice, how to make dialogue both selective and realistic, and more. Even books that we find flaws in teach us what not to do.

Never push an idea away. Keep a notebook (or your phone) handy to jot down even inspirations. Give them space and time to grow into seeds for stories. Nourish those seeds by living curiously, asking questions, and reminding yourself that writers are never bored. Every situation is potential inspiration. Hold onto your mystery. Seek out writing friends who can read and comment on your work—hold onto the good ones for the rest of your life. Finish your stories. Finish your stories. Finish your stories.   

 Which authors/books are you most influenced by?

The Hunger Games because it’s the most primal book I’ve read in ages. The Great Gatsby because it’s beautiful and heartbreaking. The Golden Compass because we should all aspire to be a little more like Lyra. White Noise because it’s brilliant and funny and the book that made me want to be a writer. And Lolita because it’s naughty.

 Flash Questions:
* Guilty pleasure? Really long hot showers. Melted cheese.
* Fruits or veggies? Fruit.
* Favorite childhood toy? It took years to get me off a tire swing. 

Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Published: October 16th 2008 by Dutton

Book Description:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge— he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues— and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Blog Tour: Tide (Character Profile of Nicholas)

 

Book Description
The "Sarah Midnight Triology" continues...

Sarah Midnight is no ordinary teenager. She is a demon hunter, caught up in one of the deadliest wars unknown to man. Orphaned at the age of sixteen, Sarah learned the family trade of hunting without her parents to guide her but under the watchful eye of her 'cousin', who was revealed to be Sean Hannay, no relative at all, but a dear friend of the real Harry Midnight.

Now, in the exciting sequel to "Dreams", the fight continues. Sarah and Sean may have defeated the Scottish Valaya, but the rest of the war still rages on, and Sarah, Sean, Nicholas and their companions must unearth the identity and location of the Enemy - the leader of the demons - before the world plunges into the Time of Demons once more. Their quest leads them to Sarah's family home, the Midnight mansion in Islay, and there they discover horrible truths about the demon ruler, his plans, and Sarah's own personal history.

Along the way, Sarah must battle not only the demons but her hurt toward Sean and her feelings for the enigmatic Nicholas, who has plans of his own.

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 Character Profile: 
Nicholas

This is how I pictured him :D
  

Nicholas is a man of many secrets. It’s difficult to write a piece about him and avoid spoilers! He’s an enigma with dark plans and a darker past, but as the trilogy progresses we see many different sides to him. Nicholas is strongly connected to the elements and holds many deadly powers – he commands fire and controls animals, amongst many other things.

He comes into Sarah’s life through her dreams, but the dreams soon seep into reality as she starts finding autumn leaves in her books, on her bed, on her doorstep, left by Nicholas as gifts. As she doesn’t know his real name, Sarah decides to call him “Leaf”. She’s fascinated by his handsome dark looks and by his mysterious ways, and finds herself caught in his spell. His hold on her might or might not be of a supernatural nature.

Sean is, obviously, very wary of him for several reasons, one of them being a deep, painful jealousy towards the strange bond between Nicholas and Sarah.

            In Tide, Leaf reveals his real name, and as the story continues, his real identity. I had a lot of fun describing the snippets of his life in Edinburgh, as it’s the perfect setting for him. Nicholas and the dark Edinburgh streets very much mirror each other in my mind. I also liked writing about the softer side of Nicholas, and his troubled past. He is a character that continues to amaze and intrigue me, and I can’t wait to unearth more about him in the next instalment.

            I really can’t tell you any more – too many secrets to be revealed! You really have to read Tide to know more!

"Leaf is the mystery guy in the first book and I've been curious to know more about him.
That's why I can't wait to read Tide!" - Dannielle

Blog Tour: Escape Theory by Margaux Froley

 

  Book Description
Sixteen-year-old Devon Mackintosh has always felt like an outsider at Keaton, the prestigious California boarding school perched above the Pacific. As long as she’s not fitting in, Devon figures she might as well pad her application to Stanford’s psych program. So junior year, she decides to become a peer counselor, a de facto therapist for students in crisis. At first, it seems like it will be an easy fly-on-the-wall gig, but her expectations are turned upside down when Jason Hutchins (a.k.a. “Hutch”), one of the Keaton’s most popular students, commits suicide.

 Devon dives into her new role providing support for Hutch’s friends, but she’s haunted by her own attachment to him. The two shared an extraordinary night during their first week freshman year; it was the only time at Keaton when she felt like someone else really understood her.  As the secrets and confessions pile up in her sessions, Devon comes to a startling conclusion: Hutch couldn't have taken his own life. Bound by her oath of confidentiality—and tortured by her unrequited love—Devon embarks on a solitary mission to get to the bottom of Hutch's death, and the stakes are higher than she ever could have imagined.

 Margaux Froley

Bio:

 

Margaux Froley is a Southern California native and a boarding school grad. She spent the last few years working her way through the Hollywood ranks to become a television writer on CW's Privileged. She then moved to New York to become a development executive at MTV Networks. Escape Theory is her first novel.

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Review: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Title:An Abundance of Katherines

Author: John Green

Published: September 1, 2013 by Dutton

Book Description:

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl.

Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

Spotlight: Absent by Katie Williams (Plus Excerpt)

   Book Description:  

Seventeen-year-old Paige is dead, the victim of a freak fall from the roof during Physics class. Now she’s a ghost, permanently bound to the grounds of her high school. It isn’t all bad, she can find out everyone’s secrets, which can be amusing—for a while. But then Paige hears something that isn’t amusing at all: the rumor spread by the most popular girl at school that her death wasn’t an accident—that she supposedly jumped on purpose. Paige is desperate to stop the gossip, but what can a ghost do? Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her, and she can make them do almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get inside the girl who’s responsible for the stories. . . and have a little fun turning the tables while she’s at it.
Katie Williams’s second novel is a suspenseful page-turner full of
eerie wit and a touch of the otherworldly

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  Katie Williams

Interview:

1. Describe your book in one sentence.
A group of ghost kids trapped on the grounds of their old high school explore the hidden truths behind their lives and deaths. Or, if you want the Hollywood-esque description: Breakfast Club, the afterlife.

2. What inspired you to write Absent?
wanted to write a story set in a contained space, and my brain offered this image of a motley group of kids in their high school after dark. I asked myself why they were there. Then I thought, What if they're all dead?

3. Book/s you look forward to read this year?
This year, I'm looking forward to a couple of sequels: *The Runaway King* by Jennifer Nielsen and *Dark Triumph* by Robin LaFevers. I'm always on pins and needles for the next Kristin Cashore book.

4. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
 Read everything.  But you've been told that before, so also: Find the complicated human in each of your characters.

5. Favorite ice cream flavor?

 Cinnamon

Absent by     ChronicleBooks     

 

Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

 

Title: Looking for Alaska

Author: John Green

Published:March 03, 2005

Book Description:

 Miles "Pudge" Halter is abandoning his safe-okay, boring-life. Fascinated by the last words of famous people, Pudge leaves for boarding school to seek what a dying Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps."

Pudge becomes encircled by friends whose lives are everything but safe and boring. Their nucleus is razor-sharp, sexy, and self-destructive Alaska, who has perfected the arts of pranking and evading school rules. Pudge falls impossibly in love. When tragedy strikes the close-knit group, it is only in coming face-to-face with death that Pudge discovers the value of living and loving unconditionally.
John Green's stunning debut marks the arrival of a stand-out new voice in young adult fiction.

Book Signing Event: Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggd

Book Signing Event

Tahereh Mafi and Ransom Riggs

 

"I was fortunate enough to be part of the first ever Bloggers Party with Tahereh Mafi"

We got the chance to talk to her and ask her questions :D

          

"Ransom Riggs is so awesome and cool"

He's so tall!

 

and.......

I got the chance to see my fellow PBT friends!

                                              

   Ice made another Masterpiece for Tahereh!

    Check out her digital sketch

"Thanks National Bookstore and Fully Booked!"

Goddess Offerings #14 (Stacking the Shelves , In My Mailbox)

For Review

Transparent by Natalie Whipple

Rush (Game#1) by Eve Silver

Fragments (Partials #2) by Dan Wells

 Traded

Eve and Adam ARC by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

Torn by Stephanie Guera 

 The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa

Wings (Wings #1) by Aprilynne Pike
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

 Borrowed

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

 Ebooks

The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)  by Julie Kagawa (Netgalley)

 Dared You To (Pushing the Limits) by Katie McGarry (Netgalley)

"Special thanks to Christine @ HarperCollins, Kai @ Amaterasu Reads, Precious @ Fragments of Life and Netgalley"

Goddess Offerings is a meme hosted by Amaterasureads 

This will showcase the books we bought, received or borrowed!

What goodies did you get this week? Link us up

Book of the Month: February "Everbound by Brodi Ashton"

So our book of the month is 

(drum roll please..).......

 

Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton

Ice's Review

Ms. Ashton did a great job on this one, from the characters, down to the writing and plot of the story. And again with that cliffhanger ending! Why oh why does it have to end like that?? Now I’ll have to patiently wait (for quite a while) for the third book! But I guess I have no choice but to wait patiently, don’t I? *sighs*

So if you haven't read Everneath yet, READ IT NOW! And see what happens in EVERBOUND.

What's your favorite book of the month?