Blog Tour: Entanglement - Dan Rix (Review + GIVEAWAY)

Title: Entanglement

Author: Dan Rix

Date of Publication: November 16, 2012

Genre: YA sci-fi romance

Blurb:

"...the scientific explanation is quantum entanglement, whereby the boy and girl—even when separated by great distances—react instantaneously to changes in each other's states..." —Dr. Casler Selavio, on the entanglement of halves.

In a world like ours, humans are born in pairs. When a newborn boy takes his first breath in the coastal town of Tularosa, the exact time is noted, recorded in the Registry, and later compared to the birth times of other newborns around the globe. There will be one identical match—his half. They will meet on their eighteenth birthday and they will spend their lives together. Except this time, there is no match.

Hotheaded heartthrob Aaron Harper is scheduled to meet his half in twenty-nine days, and he doesn’t buy a word of that entanglement crap. So what if he and his half were born the same day and share a spooky psychic connection? Big deal. After breaking one too many teenage girls’ hearts, he’ll stick to brawling with the douchebag rugby players any day.

Until the day a new girl arrives at school and threatens everything he takes for granted.

Cold and unapproachable, Amber Lilian hates the growing list of similarities between her and the one boy she can’t read, Aaron: born the same day, both stubborn, both terrified of meeting their halves. . . . All the more reason not to trust him. That she would rather die than surrender herself as her half’s property is none of his damn business. But once lost in Aaron’s dangerous, jet black eyes, she’s already surrendered more than she cares to admit.

Tangled in each other’s self-destructive lives, Aaron and Amber learn the secret behind their linked births and why they feel like halves—but unless they can prove it before they turn eighteen, Aaron faces a lifetime alone in a world where everyone else has a soul mate . . . and he’ll have to watch Amber give herself to a boy who intends to possess not only her body but also a chunk of her soul.

ENTANGLEMENT, a 75,000 word YA thriller, will appeal to readers of Michael Grant's GONE and Ally Condie’s MATCHED.

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Purchase link: Amazon

What really made me want to read this book was the premise. I thought the idea that everyone had another half who they meet on their 18th birthday was really interesting!

I quite like the way the scientific facts were shown, as I think it wasn't too difficult to understand and it helps creating the set for the story.

The characters were believable (even though I sometimes questioned Aaron's actions...). Amber was a really intriguing character from the first moment and it was really good to see how she changed throughout the book.

I thought that the pacing was good, it had lots of suspense and action scenes but there seemed to be a couple of plot holes. Also, Aaron's parents were pretty much non-existent, which bothered me a bit. 

All in all, it was a very interesting and unique read and I deffinitely recommend people checking out this book.

About Dan Rix

Dan Rix lives in Santa Barbara, California with his fiancée, paranormal romance author Laura Thalassa. He started writing his first novel in college while procrastinating his architecture studio work.

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Blog Tour: Phantom Summer - Amy Sparling (Review + GIVEAWAY)

Title: Phantom Summer

Author: Amy Sparling

Publisher: 336Love

Date of Publication: September 5, 2013

Genre: contemporary YA with ghosts

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Taylor Gray moves to Sterling Island to get over her dead boyfriend. Mom’s cool with letting her crash on the couch, but Taylor needs to get a job before the lights are cut off again.

When the tall, dark and crazy Raine Tsunami offers her a position at his thriving ghost tour business, she figures it’s an easy way to make some cash. Taylor isn’t afraid of ghosts--that crap is as fake as her mom’s boob job. She loves their adventures on the historic island, especially the secret places he shows her when the crowds go home. So what if all the ghost stories are just legends?

When Taylor comes face to face with a ghost and Raine crosses the line between friend and boyfriend--Taylor’s new life collides with her haunted past. If murdered people end up as ghosts, then that someone she was trying to forget is probably watching her.

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Excerpt

Friday comes way too fast and I'm not even mentally prepared by the time eight o'clock rolls around. It's been so long since I've hung out with anyone besides Brendan, and now I'll be with several people my age. At least they didn't appear to be stuck up or judgmental. Well, besides judging me for not believing in ghosts. Of course, it's been my experience that people judge you more once they see where you live. I vow to make sure they never find out. 

"Do you have big plans tonight?" Margret asks as we finish closing up the museum. I know she knows I have plans; she just likes to remind me. And to think I had spent all of my seventeen years wishing I had a loving grandma like in the movies. Margret is basically a loving grandma and she's starting to get on my nerves. 

"Tay-lor." She waves her hand in my face. I jolt out of my daydreams. "Yes," I say. "Anna and Pax are meeting me after work, remember?"

"Oh, that's right," she says, all coy-like. Yeah, as if she didn't remember. "Do you think Raine will be there?"

"I don't know."

"I bet he'll be there." She puts all the day's donations into a bank deposit bag and zips it closed.

"Why does it matter?"

"Because if anyone can make a believer out of you, it's that boy." My first inclination is to object and point out all thing things that make him weird. But I don't, because honestly if anyone is going to make me a believer, I want it to be Raine.

I am glad I picked up this book. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I definitely liked it (although it wasn't as creepy as I thought it would be).

The descriptions of the beach, the historical side of the island, the museums and the places they visited on the tours were beautiful and really made me want to be there.

I also loved almost all the characters! Raine was amazing! He was really sweet but had this air of confidence that made you love him! Anna and Pax were quite nice too and Anna was a good friend. Margaret was such a sweet lady, the kind that everyone wanted to have as a grandmother. I really didn't like Taylor's mother and how she only seemed to care about herself, making a lot of bad choices and almost "forcing" her daughter to make those same bad choices. And then we have Taylor...I have a bit of mixed feelings about her. In one hand I thought she was really brave and really strong dor having to deal with her past the way she did (even if sometimes it was all too much). On the other hand, in the beggining she was pissing me off. You don't have a monopoly on pain, Taylor...other people can have problems too! (Maybe it was just because she was making fun of a guy she said looked "emo" and I used to be a bit alternative too a few years ago, so it hits close to home haha).

It seemed to me that maybe the story was going to go on a slightly different route since in the early chapters Taylor is thinking about Brendan's death and she mentions a situation and when she is talking about it towards the end of the book the situation is a bit different.

I felt that the pacing was a bit slow, especially considering the paranormal theme, but maybe that was the point. Maybe it was supposed to be a more character-oriented story, which it is.

I did have one or two issues with this novel, but all in all it was an enjoyable and interesting read.

About Amy Sparling

Amy Sparling is a native Texan with a fear of cold weather and a coffee addiction that probably needs an intervention. She loves books, sarcasm, nail polish and paid holidays. She lives near the beach with her daughter, one spoiled rotten puppy and a cat who is most likely plotting to take over the world. Amy Sparling is a pen name for YA author Cheyanne Young.

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Blog Tour: Broken Symmetry - Dan Rix (Review + GIVEAWAY)

Title: Broken Symmetry

Author: Dan Rix

Publisher: Burning Ember Press

Date of Publication: July 28, 2013

Genre: YA sci-fi

Blurb:

Eleven months after the father of sixteen-year-old Blaire Adams vanished without a trace, he's found wandering outside The Scripps Research Institute vomiting blood and speaking gibberish, his sole possession a worn leather diary filled with an unrecognizable language. He has a message for her.

As he dies in her arms, he claims he never vanished. She vanished.

In a nearby military quarantine zone, scientists are being called in from around the world to sequence a previously unknown strain of DNA. Scientists…and soldiers.

When her father’s autopsy reveals a rare chromosomal disorder—a disorder, it turns out, she inherited—Blaire begins to suspect her father’s last words weren’t induced by amnesia. Like her dad, she has an additional set of instructions in her genes—instructions for what, doctors can’t say. Only one thing is certain: it’s what killed him…and it will kill her too.

But now she’s haunted by prophetic nightmares of the Yellowjacket—a young murderer, eyes the black of charcoal, who lures his victims to suicide without ever paying them a visit. The only clue she has to his handiwork is a lingering feeling of déjà vu. That, and the nagging suspicion that all she knows is a mirage. She is certain of two things—though it may mean confiding in the wrong side of good and evil, he has the answers she needs.

And he is recruiting her.

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Excerpt

In fact, I was so delirious I walked right through the front door.

My body froze, sensing my mistake before I fully realized it.

The alley, the door in the garage, the stairs up to room A—not the front door. Neverthe front door. I stood in the black, foreboding office, cold seeping into my blood. A shuffle perked my ears from the couch, where Damian’s slept, shirtless.

My God, did he live here?

If I woke him up now . . . if I woke up his reflection, who knew what permutations would come to pass. I tiptoed back toward the door, my eyes keen on Damian’s sleeping body, keen on his every twitch . . . keen on his sculpted abs and chest.

As I inched the door shut behind me, Damian muttered something in his sleep and flipped over. My hand stopped, and I listened through the gap. What if . . .

No, Blaire. Turn around.

But it was too late. The idea was already spreading waves of anticipation through my body, enflaming my skin.

We were in a reflection. I could do anything I wanted, anything. And he wouldn’t remember a thing.

Before good judgment could kill my buzz, I darted back inside. My heart hammered, echoing in the dark, fantasy world that had become my mind. I climbed onto him, straddled his legs, and traced the creases of his six-pack with my fingers. 

His stomach clenched, and his eyes snapped open.

This book caught my attention right away with the cover and the blurb and it was a very pleasant read, although there were some things that should be different. 

First of all, I have to say that there is a lot of scientific language, which isn't always excplained and if that for me isn't much of a problem, for someone else it might be. 

As for the characters, at first I didn't quite like Blaire because she seemed to be a bit arrogant and self-centered but in the end she does change and grows; I thought that the other characters were quite interesting too (especially Damian!). I have to say something about Blaire's love interest in the beginning of the book, Josh Hutchinson, who has a very angular jaw...reminds you of something? I am not sure whether this was an accident or supposed to be funny but I laughed anyway!!

The dialogue between the characters was amazing, Blaire and Damian proved to be rather wity and provided some hillarious conversations.

The pacing is alright, a bit up and down though, there are times when nothing is reallt happening and there are others when it's very action packed.

All in all, it has a couple of flaws but nothing major so I deffinitely recommend it!

About the author

Dan Rix lives in Santa Barbara, California with his fiancée, paranormal romance author Laura Thalassa. He started writing his first novel in college while procrastinating his architecture studio work.

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Blog Tour: After Hello - Lisa Magnum (Review + GIVEAWAY)

Title: After Hello

Author: Lisa Mangum

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Date of Publication: August 21, 2012

Synopsis

What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had? 

Seventeen-year-old Sara is a seeker. She’s always on the lookout for the perfect moment to capture with her ever-present, point-and-shoot camera, especially on her first trip to New York City. 

Sam is a finder. He has a knack for finding what other people can’t—a first-edition book or the last two tickets to a sold-out Broadway show. In New York, there is always something interesting to find. 

When Sam and Sara’s paths cross, neither one of them is prepared for what they will find out about each other—and about themselves when they form an unlikely partnership in search of a seemingly elusive work of art. They have one day to find the impossible. Fate brought their talents together, but what happens when time runs out? Will love be able to overcome fate? This new novel from award-winning author Lisa Mangum explores what happens after hello.

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From the moment I read the blurb I knew I had to read this book and I was not disappointed at all! I love the idea that anything can happen in New York (or at least that is what we are made to believe?) and I really like stories that happen over the course of 24-hours, I don't know but there is this sense of urgency that makes you feel like there is no time to waste.

I think that Lisa writes beautifully and her descriptions of New York were fascinating and made you feel as if you were in the city (which is great for someone, like me, who has never been there)!

I think the characters felt very real and their voice was very believable. Even though I think that maybe Sara (without an h!) was too caught up on something that happened 8/9 years before, I still thought it was easy to relate to the characters and their struggles.

As for the pacing, I think sometimes it was a bit slow, but I guess it is understandable since it happens over the course of 24 hours, so you can't really skip any moments...even the ones that felt like they were just being a filler.

I definitely recommend this book. I think it is a really cute and quick read which took me out of my reading slump (if you can consider reading +1000 page physiology and anatomy books a reading slump).

Author's Biography

Lisa Mangum has loved and worked with books ever since elementary school, when she volunteered at the school library during recess. Her first paying job was shelving books at the Sandy Library. She worked for five years at Waldenbooks while she attended the University of Utah, graduating with honors with a degree in English. An avid reader of all genres, she has worked in the publishing department for Deseret Book since 1997.

Besides books, Lisa loves movies, sunsets, spending time with her family, trips to Disneyland, and vanilla ice cream topped with fresh raspberries. She lives in Taylorsville, Utah, with her husband, Tracy. She is the author of The Hourglass Door (which was named the 2009 YA Book of the Year by ForeWord Reviews), The Golden Spiral, The Forgotten Locket and After Hello.

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Blog Tour: The Singing River - R. K. Ryals (Spotlight + GIVEAWAY)

The Singing River by R.K. Ryals

Genre: NA Contemporary

Cover Design: Regina Wamba of Mae I Design and Photography

Synopsis:

In Mississippi, there's a legend about a Singing River, a tragic love story that ended with an entire Indian tribe singing a death chant as they marched stoically into the Pascagoula River to die ...

At eighteen, Haven Ambrose isn't just a high school graduate. In her head, she's an aspiring writer, a traveler, a chef, a slayer of injustice, an astronomer, an archaeologist, and the love child of a famous, rich musician. But reality is harsher. 

Reality is overdue bills, a crumbling trailer, an absent father, an old addiction, and a hot, crushing summer that may end in disappointment. 

For twenty year-old River Brayden, life seems good, but appearances can be deceiving. The oldest son of a wealthy family, he has finished his first year at 

Harvard to return home for the summer only to discover his younger brother headed down an unforgiving road. 

They will be drawn together by a song. For during the late summer, they say the Pascagoula death chant can still be heard near the Singing River. Its call is haunting, its chant a testament of love and sacrifice. It calls to some ... beckoning.

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Excerpt

I stepped toward her. “You have a way of making people relate to you.”

She snorted. “I doubt that.”

I was in front of her now, my face peering down into hers. “Really, you do. A few hours of knowing you feels like days.”

“Sounds tiresome,” she teased.

“It’s a gift,” I countered.

There were sudden lines in her forehead, a troubled look in her eye. “Some might call it a curse,” she murmured. “By the end of this trip, you’ll want me gone.”

It was my turn to frown, my gaze studying her face. She had green eyes so dark they could be mistaken for brown and lashes so long they almost touched her brows. True, she was more willowy than curvy, but she was beautiful in an understated, elegant kind of way. The faint freckles on the bridge of her nose drove me crazy.

“Why do you think that?” I asked.

There was something stark and open about her eyes when she answered, “Because I am better at being abandoned than I am at keeping people.”

About The Author

R. K. Ryals is a scatterbrained mother of three whose passion is reading whatever she can get her hands on. She makes her home in Mississippi with her husband, three daughters, a Shitzsu named Tinkerbell, and a coffeepot she couldn't live without.

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Blog Tour: Over The Rainbow - Brian Rowe (Review + Guest Post)

 

Over The Rainbow by Brian Rowe
Publication Date: June 8th, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis

16-year-old Zippy Green never meant to fall in love with a girl, but when she does, her ultra-conservative father tries to send her to anti-gay camp. At the Kansas City airport, however, she hides inside a giant suitcase and sneaks onto an airplane headed not to the camp, but to Seattle, where her online love Mira lives. Halfway through the flight, the plane barrels out of control and crashes into the ground, knocking her unconscious. 

When Zippy awakens, she finds that most of the passengers have vanished. She doesn’t know what’s happened, but she’s determined to find out. She begins a quest on foot toward Seattle, and along the way, she meets a teenager with a concussion , a homeless man with a heart condition, a child without a shred of bravery, and a terrier named Judy. Together the group discovers that more than two-thirds of the world's population has mysteriously disappeared. But that's only the beginning...

All Zippy wants is to find her Mira, but before she can she has to contend with two outside forces. The first is her homophobic father, who does everything in his power to keep her from the girl she loves. And the second is extinct creatures of all shapes and sizes, including living, breathing dinosaurs, which have replaced the missing population.

Excerpt

The end was coming, faster and faster, as the plane plummeted. I peered into the carrier to see a little white terrier staring back at me.

            When I closed my eyes for the final time I felt two ice-cold tears roll down my cheeks.

            “Mira… I love you… I love you… I—”

            The plane collided against the Earth, and I launched forward, struck my head against the cargo door, and blacked out.  

I know that I am usually not a big fan of fantasy novels but there was something about this one that sounded different. And I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. I think the story os very unique and different from everything I have ever read!

I think that the pacing of the story is very good and towards the middle it becomes really action packed and I couldn't stop reading until I found out whether or not the characters made it out alives.

I tried but I didn't "click" very well with Zippy (the main character)...I think that she was supposed to be smart but sometimes her actions were a bit irresponsible and crazy (even though she always succeeded in what she was doing). I also hated her father (but that is understandable). And I really liked the rest of the characters.

One of the interesting things in this novel are the little chapters from a few years before, that allowed me to understand Zippy's life better and also her relationship with her family.

Guest Post

So why draw from The Wizard of Oz so much in Over the Rainbow? The idea of re-imagining one of my favorite movies of all time was actually an accident. When I started outlining the book, I didn't think about The Wizard of Oz, but the similarities started popping up right away, and ultimately they had to either be embraced or dismissed. I knew the main character Zippy Green was going to meet three people on her journey, and I also knew I wanted to send her to Seattle, Washington. When I learned that a nickname for Seattle is The Emerald City, I knew that The Wizard of Oz was destined to become a major part of my book. 

I thought it was fun in the writing to incorporate elements of The Wizard of Oz just enough so that the fans would see how it's all a subversive, modern re-imagining, but I also made sure to have the references be subtle enough so that you could read Over the Rainbow without thinking about The Wizard of Oz, and the book would still work on its own. Some moments are obvious (Zippy says "I have a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore" in Chapter 2), and some are super specific, the kind of in-jokes you'll blink and miss if you're not paying close attention (take note of Zippy's home address).

It took me the longest time to come up with a title for my newest book, and The Wizard of Oz helped me there, too. The first title was Once Upon a Time in Topeka, then I went with Enraptured for awhile. In the end I love that the book is called Over the Rainbow. Not only does it reference the classic film, and not only does a rainbow show up in the final scene, but the image of the rainbow brings to mind pride and tolerance in the LGBT community, which is the most prevalent and important theme that runs throughout the book. 

Author's Biography:

Brian Rowe is a writing fiend, book devotee, film fanatic, and constant dreamer. He's written nine novels, dozens of short stories, five feature-length screenplays, and hundreds of film articles and essays. His fiction has appeared in Dreamspinner Press, Mobius Magazine, and Wilde Oats Literary Journal. He is one half of the YA book blog Story Carnivores, where he reviews the latest in books and film. He is currently pursuing his MA in English at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is hard at work on his first New Adult novel, which will be released in November 2013.

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Blog Tour: Call Me Crazy - Quinn Loftis (Review + Guest Post)

Call Me Crazy by Quinn Loftis
Publication date: May 31st 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary

Synopsis

“I’m looking out from inside the chaos. It must be a one-way mirror because no one seems to be able to see back inside to where I am. The looks on their faces, the judgment in their eyes, tells me everything I need to know. The most frustrating part about the whole messed up situation is that even though I’m the one that they stare at in shock, I am just as shocked as they are. I know no more than they do of why I lose control. What they don’t know is that I am more scared of myself than they could ever be.” ~ Tally Baker

After a devastating turn of events, seventeen year old Tally Baker is admitted to Mercy Psychiatric Facility where she is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. She has come to a place where she honestly believes that her life is over. Her mind tells her that she will never smile or laugh again, that she will never be normal again. It is in this unlikely place that she meets two people, different in every way, yet both critical to helping her realize that she has so much more living to do. 

Candy, a cantankerous sixty year old Mercy Psychiatric patient, is hell bent on driving everyone as crazy as she is. Candy shows Tally that, regardless of her diagnosis, the ability to push on and live her life to the fullest is her choice and hers alone. In the midst of Tally’s oftentimes humorous, sometimes heart-wrenching, escapades with Candy, a new patient is admitted to Mercy—a native American woman named Lolotea. Along with this new patient comes a daily visitor, her son, Trey Swift. At first glance, it is obvious to Tally that he is incredibly handsome and unbelievably caring. But what she learns through her second glance, and many thereafter, is that there is much more to Trey than he ever lets on. It is during these daily visits that Trey and Tally build a friendship far deeper than either of them truly realize. With Trey, Tally feels for the first time since being admitted that someone is looking at her as a person and not as a disease. Trey begins to make it clear that he wants more than friendship, but she knows that she can never give him more. How can she, when she won’t even give him the truth?  Tally doesn’t tell Trey that she is a patient at Mercy, and she doesn’t ever plan to. Her plans go up in flames when she finds out that Trey is a new student at her school, the school where her brokenness was found out in the floor of the girl’s bathroom in a pool of her own blood. 

Tally Baker is a 17-year-old girl who is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and is admitted into Mercy Psychiatry Facility. There she makes friends with an inconvinient and mischievous old lady named Candy and she meets Trey Swift while he is visiting his mother. 

This book was such an emotional rollercoster...I laughed, I cried, I swooned and I felt like punching a wall! It has everything!

I found the interactions between Tally and Candy to be hilarious and helped to soften the story a little bit sometimes. I also liked that by the end we can see Tally's parents trying to understand her more and trying to be more present and become a part of the support group she needs.

Natalie also seemed to be a great friend and never gave up on Tally so it was nice that she also had a little love story going on which helped her become more 3-dimensional.

Then there's Trey...tall, dark, handsome, caring and protective Trey...do you see where I am going with this? I loved how gentle he was both with his mother and withTally. How he took care of her and gave all of his love to her. I found myself stopping just to sigh and swoon at how sweet that 6'3 guy was. Now, with that being said, one of the things that confused me a little bit was how quickly everything went. I do understand that at a young age (look at me talking as if I hadn't just turned 19 last month) things always happen really fast but here they happened a bit too fast.

Still, if you can look past how fast their relationship got serious, this is an amazing and really enjoyable book.

Guest Post: "What does my office look like" - Quinn Loftis

Hmm, short answer- it looks like a teenager vomited in it. (I mean that in the best possible way)

I wanted an office that would inspire me to want to write, something bright and inviting and invigorating. The other colors in my house are very cozy colors which I love but aren’t conducive to being alert to write. I also wanted to have things around me that inspired me so I have fan art hanging all around, and I have my books displayed- this helps me remember, when I’m in the middle of a book and don’t think I can do it, that I’ve actually written books before and had people like them.  Below are some pics of it.

Author's Biography

Quinn is a 32 year old wife, mother, nurse, and writer, not necessarily in that order.  She lives in beautiful West Arkansas with her husband, son, Nora their Doberman pinscher and Phoebe their cat (who thinks she is a ninja in disguise). She loves writing, reading, and crocheting. Her favourite holiday is Christmas, favourite book(s) is Pride and Prejudice, The Alpha and Omega Series by Patricia Briggs, and the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. She loves to be silly and have fun, loves music and thinks there is no greater sound in the world than that of her little boy's laughter.

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