Book Blitz: My Heart is Yours

My Heart is Yours by Amanda Leigh
Age Group: You Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: May 18, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Samantha Marie Ramsden has three brothers. Craig, John and Matt. When tragedy strikes their family, Craig takes on the task of becoming his siblings legal guardian. 

It’s hard enough being someone’s guardian, but when you’ve only recently entered adulthood yourself it’s almost impossible to know where to draw the line between sibling and ‘parent’.

This is made even harder on him when Sam starts to get close to a long time friend, Jason. It looks like their friendship could turn into something more. 

An idea that Craig has never been too happy with. Spanning six years, My Heart is Yours explores family, friendship, love and much more. As well as asking the question: Would you defy family for love?


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Excerpt:

Five and a half year old Samantha slept in her white threadbare sheets. Tonight the wind was coming through particularly strong from the cracks in the wooden boards on her window. Her small body shivered.

The door creaked open and her mother entered. Sam had the same blonde hair as her mother. Her eyes were her own though. Changing from blue, to grey, to blue-grey, to green or any combination of these colors seemingly simultaneously. Sandra’s hand approached her daughter’s shoulder and she shook her roughly awake.

The clock on the wall read three o’ clock in the morning. Sam rubbed her eyes. “Come on!” Her mother said as she looked over her shoulder. “Get out of bed, now!” She grabbed a hammer from the toolbox they kept in Sam’s room, went to the boarded up window and started tearing the boards to the floor. Wood splintered through the air. “Go on.” She gestured to the window. “Get out. Go.”

Book Blitz: Life Unaware

Life Unaware by Cole Gibsen
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Regan Flay has been talking about you.

Regan Flay is on the cusp of achieving her control-freak mother's "plan" for high school success―cheerleading, student council, the Honor Society—until her life gets turned horribly, horribly upside down. 

Every bitchy text. Every bitchy email. Every lie, manipulation, and insult she's ever said have been printed out and taped to all the lockers in school.

Now Regan has gone from popular princess to total pariah. The only person who even speaks to her is her former best friend's hot but socially miscreant brother, Nolan Letner. Nolan thinks he knows what Regan's going through, but whatnobody knows is that Regan isn't really Little Miss Perfect. 

In fact, she's barely holding it together under her mom's pressure. But the consequences of Regan's fall from grace are only just beginning. Once the chain reaction starts, no one will remain untouched...

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Coffee With Cole:

Review: A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy-a cool, slick, sexy boy who can talk them into doing almost anything he wants. 

In a blur of high school hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give up and what ultimately to keep for herself.

How do girls handle themselves? How much can a boy get away with?

And in the end, who comes out on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is about to meet three girls who won't back down.




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“It reminds me of the way the sun hits the water in the afternoon scattering color and light all over the beach revealing little nooks and crannies that were always there but didn’t catch my eye until the moment they sparkled in the sunlight, impossible to miss,” Josie – A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone is written from the perspectives of three different girls, Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva. I love this book. First off I love the format Stone writes the book in. It’s easy to read and interesting to see how each section or word rather relates to what’s being written. Second, it’s realistic. I love when I can relate a book to an experience I’ve had in my life or one of my friends have had.

Author Spotlight: Rebecca Serle

The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Release Date: March 18, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Growing up in privileged, Manhattan social circles, Caggie’s life should be perfect, and it almost was until the day that her younger sister drowned when Caggie was supposed to be watching her. Stricken by grief, Caggie pulls away from her friends and family, only to have everyone misinterpret a crucial moment when she supposedly saves a fellow classmate from suicide.

Now she’s famous for something she didn’t do and everyone lauds her as a hero. But inside she still blames herself for the death of her sister and continues to pull away from everything in her life, best friend and perfect boyfriend included. Then Caggie meets Astor, the new boy at school, about whom rumours are swirling and known facts are few. In Astor she finds someone who just might understand her pain, because he has an inner pain of his own.

But the more Caggie pulls away from her former life to be with Astor, the more she realises that his pain might be darker, and deeper, than anything she’s ever felt. His pain might be enough to end his life…and Caggie’s as well.

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Guest Interviewer: Mandy Teccia

We love the tagline on your blog, "The truth is I never know when an idea will pop into my head. Welcome to my life as a novelist." Tell us about where/when/how the idea for "The Edge of Falling" came to you.

Thanks! And it's true! EDGE came into my head one fall afternoon. I had just come from a meeting with my agent where she basically told me to take 6 months and write another book (no problem :) I had just finished FAMOUS IN LOVE (a novel I have that's coming out in Oct) and I remember thinking-- ANOTHER one? What will I write? And then Caggie just fell into my head. I was walking home, through the streets of New York, and it just hit me-- I want to tell her story. I want to set a book in Manhattan, and I want it to have something to do with "The Catcher in the Rye." The story just started to take hold from there.

One of our favorite things about your books is how the setting feels so important. The beaches and cliffs in When You Were Mine and New York City in The Edge of Falling each felt almost like characters themselves. How do you decide where to set your stories and how much does the setting itself matter to you?

Review: The Edge of Falling

The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Release Date: March 18, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Growing up in privileged, Manhattan social circles, Caggie’s life should be perfect, and it almost was until the day that her younger sister drowned when Caggie was supposed to be watching her. Stricken by grief, Caggie pulls away from her friends and family, only to have everyone misinterpret a crucial moment when she supposedly saves a fellow classmate from suicide.

Now she’s famous for something she didn’t do and everyone lauds her as a hero. But inside she still blames herself for the death of her sister and continues to pull away from everything in her life, best friend and perfect boyfriend included. Then Caggie meets Astor, the new boy at school, about whom rumours are swirling and known facts are few. In Astor she finds someone who just might understand her pain, because he has an inner pain of his own.

But the more Caggie pulls away from her former life to be with Astor, the more she realises that his pain might be darker, and deeper, than anything she’s ever felt. His pain might be enough to end his life…and Caggie’s as well.

♥ ♥ ♥ Guest Reviewer: Mandy Teccia

“Most great works of literature have a hero at their core, but this story is an exception.”

There’s nothing better than a book that starts with a quotable opening line and this one from The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle definitely fits that bill. This is our introduction to Mcalister Caulfield, better known as Caggie, a privileged teenager who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Between her literary name and her Gossip Girl upbringing, Caggie’s existence seems pretty perfect from the outside. She’s got the kind of life those of us who spend our spare time basking in the teen worlds portrayed on The CW have always dreamed of, filled with money, gorgeous clothes, high society parties and free reign of Manhattan, but as the first line suggests, Caggie is not exactly basking in her good fortune.

Serle begins to peel back the curtain on Caggie’s ‘perfect’ life from the start of the story. Her family is broken and they haven’t recovered from the tragic death of her younger sister. Caggie is lost without her and doesn’t know how to go on being the person she was before, and that means isolating herself from the people closest to her and finding someone new to spend time with – enter the troubled Astor.

Promotional Event: Boy Red

Boy Red by Shanta Everington
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: October 30, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Boy Red is a story about identity, about where you come from and where you belong. 

The day after his sixteenth birthday, Red discovers that the man he calls ‘Dad’ is not his biological father. 

Will Red be able to track down the anonymous sperm donor who gave him life? 

What will he learn about himself along the way? And just what else are his parents hiding?


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Excerpt:

Happy Birthday

It was Saturday night, and Mum was up on the makeshift stage doing a classy number-that is to say Tina Turner complete with big hair and five-inch red heels. The booths were taken by the karaoke regulars clutching their song sheets and medallions. A throng of studded students drank cheap German beer at the bar, disappearing outside every few minutes for a smoke. Tourists dripping with backpacks chatted in a zillion different languages.

A few weeks ago, I told Mum I wanted low key, meaning a night out down the Lock with Si-no wigs, microphones, or other parental contributions in sight. But she would have none of it.

"Red, baby, you only turn sixteen once," she’d said.

"You’ve got to mark it in style. You’ve got to have a party."

Book Blast: Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible

Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible by Suzanne Kamata
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Aiko Cassidy is fourteen and lives with her sculptor mother in a small Midwestern town. For most of her young life Aiko, who has cerebral palsy, has been her mother’s muse. But now, she no longer wants to pose for the sculptures that have made her mother famous and have put food on the table. Aiko works hard on her own dream of becoming a great manga artist with a secret identity.

When Aiko’s mother invites her to Paris for a major exhibition of her work, Aiko at first resists. She’d much rather go to Japan, Manga Capital of the World, where she might be able to finally meet her father, the indigo farmer. When she gets to France, however, a hot waiter with a passion for manga and an interest in Aiko makes her wonder if being invisible is such a great thing after all. And a side trip to Lourdes, ridiculous as it seems to her, might just change her life.

Gadget Girl began as a novella published in Cicada. The story won the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award in Fiction and was included in an anthology of the best stories published in Cicada over the past ten years.

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Giveaway:

Book Blitz: To Know Me

To Know Me by Marcy Blesy
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Romance, Realistic Fiction
Release Date: August 21, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

To know me is to die...

Seventeen-year-old Mae is convinced that the consequences of her poor decisions have caused the untimely deaths of her dad, sister Laura, and grandma who all die within a year, no matter how ludicrous her thoughts seem to those she loves. 

The solution? Run away so no one else she cares for gets hurt (even if she has to keep a GPS tracker on her phone at all times).

Desperate to earn her diploma and salvage something of her life, she transfers schools when people get too close. After switching to Woodson Prep with only two months to go until graduation, Mae keeps her goals in sight. But when she meets Ty, the "perfect boy" with his own secrets and a relentless interest in Mae, she must decide if she can stop running from the past and still protect those she loves.

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Excerpt:

To know me is to die. I mean, to really know me, like when you know I can run for hours without so much as a water break, or that cinnamon sugar doughnuts are my weakness, or that my dad gave me a whole different name. But I don’t let people get that close. I’ve learned the hard way. Too many people die in my life. Grandma said I was only unlucky.

“It’s not your fault all those people you love die. It’s just bad luck that you’ve had to deal with grief so young. Not fair at all,” she’d said. That was right before she died on my seventeenth birthday and right after my sister Laura, my dad, and my dog Petie.

Banned Book Week: Booktrib Presents - Hangout On Air with Jay Asher!

This week is all about Banned Books and one event that I absolutely have to promote because of my recent love of Thirteen Reasons Why is the Hangout with Jay Asher event happening today at 3pm!

Booktrib is hosting and it's going to be a ton of fun! There will be giveaways and you can ask Jay Asher those burning questions of yours. So stop by and join in the annual celebration of the freedom to read!

Check out the Flyer Invitation below!

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: October 18, 2007
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.


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“He told me to see poetry as a puzzle. It’s up to the reader to decipher the code, or words, based on everything they know about life and emotions.” –Hanna Baker, Thirteen Reasons Why.

You’re wondering why I picked this quote aren’t you when you know there are probably more meaningful ones in this book. The truth is I think this quote sums up Hanna’s story in a nutshell. Hanna herself is a puzzle and throughout Thirteen Reasons Why we get to see that puzzle slowly but surely stumble together creating a picture that even though you don’t want to see, you can’t run away from. It’s staring you back in the face making you think, wonder, am I someone’s puzzle piece?

Every so often you find a book that changes your life, opens your eyes to things you might have otherwise missed and for me that book is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Never have I read a story so devastatingly honest and gut-wrenchingly tragic before and yet with all the truths and ugliness Asher engulfs the reader in, in the end I can see the tiniest sliver of hope shine through.

Blog Tour: A Sliver of Hope - Guest Post

A Sliver of Hope by Karla J. Nellenbach
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Release Date: March 25, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

My twin sister was the only person in the world I thought I’d known inside and out. Apparently, I was wrong.

Twin sisters share a unique bond, one that can't be broken by miles, time, or even death. Hannah and Hope Morton are no exception. When Hope takes her own life, Hannah loses a sister and a best friend, a catastrophe she isn't sure she'll survive herself.

With her family in ruins, Hannah is slowly disappearing, drowning in a sea of misery. Even her wild, energetic best friend can't pull her out of her grief. Desperate to help Hannah, her brother comes home from college, bringing his best friend Julian along, the first boy to break Hannah’s heart. None of their efforts are enough to pull Hannah off her self destructive path, though. Julian is the only one who can get through to her, working his way into her frozen soul with cocky remarks and genuine love that warms her from the inside out.

As Hannah works to find answers, she continues to uncover new secrets and people that reveal a side of Hope she had never shared with her twin. Alone now, Hannah must make a decision of her own: move on and start a new life with the people she has left, or let the weight of her grief drag her down with her sister.

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A Sliver Of Hope, Cast O’ Characters



Hannah & Hope. (played by Jennifer Lawrence) Main and title characters, Hannah is still reeling from the loss of her twin sister and best friend, Hope.