Cover Reveal: Unremembered - Jessica Brody

The only thing worse than forgetting her past... is remembering it.

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

Expected publication: March 3rd 2013 by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (BYR)

Quick Q&A With Katie McGarry, Author Of Pushing The Limits.

Today I have the pleasure of  posting a few Q&A from Katie McGarry, author of the fantastic beyond words 'Pushing The Limits'.
Everybody needs to read this book!

1. I absolutely loved this book, have you always had this kind of a storyline in mind for your first book?

First off, thank you for the kind words about Pushing the Limits and to answer your question, I always knew that I wanted to write a love story. I adore writing those moments that make my heart flutter.

2. I loved all the characters in this book, were any of them based on anybody you know?

No, but I will say that I put a piece of myself, no matter how small, into each of my characters. Echo has my sarcasm, Beth encompasses my fears, Isaiah and Lila share my loyalty, and Noah has my passion to love.

3. You touch on a lot of topics in this book mental illness, abuse, memory-loss, death and love. I ended up in tears a few times, how emotionally involved did you get while writing it?

When I write, I “become” my characters. Their highs are my highs. Their hurts become my hurts. I cried several times while writing Pushing the Limits, but I also laughed quite a bit too.

A Big Thanks To Katie For Her Time.

Pushing The Limits Synopsis.

SO WRONG FOR EACH OTHER...AND YET SO RIGHT.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins--the smoking hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket--explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

My Review Of Pushing The Limits
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Katie's Blog

(ARC) Book Review (114). Minder - Kate Kaynak

Minder (Ganzfield #1)

by Kate Kaynak 

Publication: 21st May 2012

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Pages: 224

Genre: Paranormal

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Maddie Dunn is special, but she needs to figure out how to use her new abilities before somebody else gets hurt. Ganzfield is a secret training facility full of people like her, but it's not exactly a nurturing place. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control. A stray thought can burn a building to the ground. And people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. But it's still better than New Jersey--especially once she meets the man of her dreams...

My Thoughts...

You know when you pick up a book and you don't know exactly what to expect, but you start reading it and realise you've stumbled across something fantastic and wonder why you'd never read it before?.Well this is definitely one of those books.

This is a re-release of this book and I can't believe I've never picked it up before, maybe this story will have people wanting to go to Ganzfield instead of Hogwarts!

I didn't want to put this book down, I was so involved in the story I just needed to know what was going to happen next, and not for a minute was I bored.

My reflection in the one-way glass of the police interrogation room stared back at me, pale and hollow-eyed.

I loved that line as the very first sentence of the book, I was instantly intrigued as to why Maddie was in an interrogation room in the first place and how she was going to get out of whatever it was she had done to end up there.

After being attacked Maddie finds in her terrified state that she has a powerful ability, she's a telepath and she can use her ability to incapacitate people, she's what Ganzfield calls a "Minder".

Oh, God. What happened - what did I do? 

WHAT AM I?

Maddie is taken to Ganzfield, a school for kids with special abilities, we have the Charms (the ability to get people to do anything you want them to), Sparks (the power of pyrokinises), RV (the ability to find anyone, anywhere), Minders (telepaths) and then there's the power of telekinises (the ability to move something with your mind), there is only one student in the whole of Ganzfield with this ability and that's Trevor.

And for those of you not fans of the insta-love, well I'm sorry to say that it occurs here between Maddie and Trevor, although they do make quite a cute couple.

I felt a primal thrill at his strength, and then smirked at myself. Geez! Why didn't I just put my hair in a ponytail so he'd have a convenient handle to drag me back to his cave.

Maddie helps restore the balance to Ganzfield after standing up to the Charms and realising that they can't control her, and so she looks out for all the other groups.

She also brings Trevor out of his shell, he was so afraid that with his ability he would hurt somebody and so would sleep in a deserted church on the property that had no electric, heat or bathroom amenities, and it's there that Maddie escapes to one night after sending everyone her nightmare that she starts to develop a friendship and relationship with Trevor.

But as with all stories there is a enemy lurking around the corner, and they are trying to capture G-positives (what the students with abilities have in their DNA) and experiment on them, but what happens when one is captured?

I'm dying to know what happens in the next book, Kaynak has built a world that has me fascinated and wanting to know more.

I give this 4.5/5.

In My Mailbox (37).

In My Mailbox Is A Weekly Meme Hosted By Kristi The Story Siren.

Review.

Losing Lila (Lila #2) - Sarah Alderson (Simon And Schuster Australia)
Two Weeks Notice (Revivalist #2) - Rachel Caine (Penguin Australia)
The Traitors - Tom Becker (Scholastic Australia)
Ransomwood - Sherryl Jordan (Scholastic Australia)
When It Happens - Susane Colasanti (Scholastic Australia)
The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe #1) - Ambelin Kwaymullina (Walker Books Australia)
Children Of The In-Between - Jodee Taylah (Toxic Apple Studios)

Brought.

Dark Water (Siren #3) - Tricia Rayburn
The Forsaken (The Forsaken #1) - Lisa M. Stasse
Such A Rush - Jennifer Echols
Shadow Of Night (All Soul's Trilogy #2) - Deborah Harkness
Fever Moon: The Fear Dorcha - Karen Marie Moning

Book Review (113): Lord Of Fire And Ice - Connie Mason & Mia Marlowe

Lord of Fire and Ice

by Connie Mason, Mia Marlowe 

Publication: 3rd July 2012

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Pages: 384

Genre: Historical Romance

Age Appropriate: Adult

"A page–turning, emotional romance, rich in historical details and plot twists." —RT Book Reviews on Sins of the Highlander, 4 Stars

His Duty is to Fulfill Her Every Desire...

Brandr the Far–Traveled has seen the world and a good many of the beautiful women in it. His bed skills are the stuff of steamy legend, his sword sings death, and he can call up fire from thin air. No one in a hundred years ever thought he could be enslaved through trickery and forced to wear the iron collar of a thrall—least of all him.

Until All She Desires is Him...

Katla the Black isn't just called so for her dark, silky hair. His new mistress has a temper as fierce as a warrior's and a heart as icy as the frozen North. But inch by delicious inch, Brandr means to make her melt...

My Thoughts.

I love to read historical romance's, especially when we have a feisty heroine and a sexy, manly hero.

 "So That's The Great And Mighty Brandr", A grumbling voice said from somewhere above him.

And that's how we first meet Brandr the Far-Traveled, unconscious,tied up, naked and fitted with an iron thrall's collar around his neck.
He is delivered to Katla The Black as a slave to do her bidding, at first hesitant it isn't until she discovers who he is and that his father Ulf was responsible for the death of her first husband she agrees, her brothers who were responsible for the drugging and kidnapping of Brandr tell her she has to find a husband, they will present her with three men whom she will choose to wed.
But what happens when Katla and Brandr develop feelings for each other?
I love the fact that the hero is a Viking and even more that he ended up being a Fire Mage as well, I love the added bonus of a bit of paranormal into the story.
The ancient customs of the Vikings were very interesting and added a lot of realism to the story, I especially loved the wedding ceremony, the traditions of it, it was so sweet.
Of course this book is not without some action, and we have the hero and heroine fighting to save Katla's home from people wanting to take it over and all the other homesteads around it.
There's ship battles, sword fights and action aplenty which gives an exciting aspect and will keep you entertained all the way throughout.
The collaboration between Mason and Marlowe worked extremely well and I hope to read further work from these two in the future.
I give this 4/5.

Cover Reveal: The Keep - Veronica Wolff

The Keep (The Watchers #4) - Veronica Wolff

Released: June 2013

Blog Tour: First Frost - Liz DeJesus - Book Review (112).

I'm very excited to be today's stop on the First Frost tour.

As my part of the tour I will be putting up a review for this book.

First Frost

by Liz DeJesus 

Published June 22nd 2012 by Musa Publishing

Fairytales aren’t real…yeah…that’s exactly what Bianca thought. She was wrong.

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

My Thoughts.

I am a big fan of fairytale retellings, and this one did not let me down.

First Frost is a story full of adventure, humour, magic and love.

Set in the modern day, Bianca and her Mum run a museum filled with artifacts from famous fairytales, unknown to Bianca the artifacts are real and the museum has been run by the Frost family for generations, what Bianca doesn't know that as well as fairytales being real she is also descended from Snow White, and oh she's also a witch!

After her Mum is kidnapped by an evil witch, Bianca sets out with her best friend Ming to go and save her, which means stepping into a portal into another world called Everafter where all the fairytales took place.

And of course they run into the obligatory Prince Charming who's aim in life is to save a Princess or a damsel in distress.

What about you? Change your mind about Prince Ferdinand yet?" "Prince I-Love-Myself-More-Than-Anyone? Blah, blah, blah, I'm a Prince. Blah, blah, blah, I have a castle. Yeah, right. I'd rather deal with the Neanderthals in school than the Prince...even if he is royalty."

I love how he's exactly how you'd imagine a Prince from a fairytale to be, he is also traveling with a childhood friend Terrance, whom Bianca becomes quite interested in.
So with their group they set off for the evil witch's castle to rescue Bianca's Mum with some help from some of the museum's artifacts.
Along the way Bianca get's to use her witch powers to aid them and practice's for when she meets up with the evil witch.

"I think I'm gonna throw up!' she shouted as she looked down to where her friends were. "Don't blow chinks down here, B. I didn't bring any shampoo so if I smell like vomit I'm gonna have to stop being friends with you for a while. I mean it," Ming shouted back. "I'll try." "Don't...blow...chunks!" Ming shouted.

There are some famous fairytale characters that appear in Everafter, and it was really exciting the way that they were written into the storyline , and I think it added more to the general story the way that they interacted with Bianca and her friends.
I really loved the romance that developed between Rose and Terrance and I can't wait to see where their relationship will go in the next book especially after the ending, which had me wishing that I had the second book waiting and ready to be read!
I can't wait to read more from this author her writing is fresh and exciting.
I give this 4/5.

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011) and First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012). Liz is currently working on a new novel.

Find Liz:

Website

Blog

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Buy First Frost

e is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007) and The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011). Liz is currently working on a new novel.