Monday, January 26, 2015

Cover reveal - Shadows Have Gone by Lissa Bryan #NA #apocalyse

Today we have a double post, so after checking out Shadows Have Gone, continue scrolling down for a cover reveal for the thriller Crosstown Kid by Richard Weir and don't forget there's still an active Month9Books giveaway below that! Enjoy!
cool TWCS logo
PRESENTS. . .

A Cover Reveal for

Shadows Have Gone
Book 3 of End of All Things Series
by Lissa Bryan
Shadows-Have-Gone-Hi-Res-Cover
Release Date: March 26 , 2015

~~SUMMARY~~
Carly Daniels knows what it is to suffer loss. She knows what it is to sacrifice. In the two years since a pandemic virus—known only as the Infection—decimated humanity, she’s made choices she never could have imagined. She’s condoned violence in the name of peace and done the unthinkable in the name of mercy. But with Justin at her side, she’s also learned there’s nothing she can’t face and nothing she wouldn’t do to protect those she loves.
But now another threat has arrived in the form of a uniformed man driving an army truck, claiming to represent the remnant of the United States military. Someone has set their sights on their community . . . and on Justin. The struggle to defend their little homeland is far from over, and the visitors may have brought more danger with them than just their weapons.
The shadows are closing in. Carly has to find out whether she has the strength to stand on her own when all of her support has fallen away. What remains when the shadows have gone?
 
~~EXCERPT~~
“There’s other news,” Justin said. “We made contact with a man driving an army truck.”
“The army?”
“Someone with the army?”
“There’s an army?”
“Whose army?” Pete’s voice rang above the excited babble.
“That’s the right question,” Justin said. “Whose army? He might have been wearing a uniform and claiming affiliation, but I have my doubts.”
“He claimed to be from the US Army?”
“Claimed,” Justin said, stressing the word hard. “And his claim had a few inconsistencies. I was in the Army, and I know. Whatever this guy is a part of, it’s not the army as we knew it.”
“What did he want?”
“Said he was out scouting and saw the smoke. He agreed to leave a message outside of Clayton if his people want to get in contact with us again. And I would imagine they will.”Shadows-Have-Gone-3D-Paperback-eReader
“Last thing we need is another fight,” Grady said. He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “You think they know where we are?”
“General area. We wouldn’t be that hard to find if someone was really searching for us. If they’re really army, then yes, they know exactly where we are as we speak. But as I said, I have my doubts.”
“Think it will come to a fight?” Pete asked.
Justin scratched his chin. “I really can’t say. What I can say is that we always need to be prepared for it, prepared to defend what is ours.”
“What if they really are the army? Would we be America again?”
“Wait. When did we stop being America?”
“America is dead.” This came from David, his voice as blunt as a dropped stone. “We all saw it die two years ago. I don’t know what we are now, but the Constitution sure ain’t in effect anymore. There’s no government. There’s no social contract holding us together. That’s what America was, you know—a collective agreement of the people. Now we’re just—” He sliced a hand through the air.
“If the army is still active, that would mean there is a government, which would make this still America,” Grady said. “They’d be the government’s representatives, establishing order.”
Justin shook his head. “You’re thinking way too far ahead. Even if they are US Army—and that’s a very big if—they don’t have control of the whole country. There is no centralized government, no law enforcement. They’re not coming to rescue us.”
 
~~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~~
bc1e2-lissabryan2
Lissa Bryan is an astronaut, renowned Kabuki actress, Olympic pole vault gold medalist, Iron Chef champion, and scientist who recently discovered the cure for athlete's foot...though only in her head. Real life isn't so interesting, which is why she spends most of her time writing.
She is the author of four other novels, Ghostwriter, The End of All Things, its sequel, The Land of the Shadows, and Under These Restless Skies.
         
~~CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR~~
 
~~OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES~~
Ω
After a terrible virus ravages the planet, Carly Daniels, one of the few survivors, hides in her apartment in Juneau trying to survive the best she can with only occasional forays to gather food. With her is Sam, a wolf puppy she found starving on the streets. He becomes her companion and a reason to continue when giving up sometimes seems like the more attractive option. Still dazed with shock and grief, she hopes for the world to go back to normal soon.
She is discovered by Justin, an ex-soldier who is intent on making his way to Florida before the winter sets in. Justin coaxes her out of her hiding place and convinces her to join him on his journey, because a warmer climate will be their best chance against the extremes of Mother Nature.
Together, they begin a perilous journey through a nation laid to waste by the disaster. Challenges abound along the way. The weather, injury, and shortage of supplies all help to slow them down. In time, they discover that they aren’t the only survivors. Some are friendly but some have had their minds destroyed by the high fever. Then there are those who simply take what they want, leaving Carly and Justin with no choice but to defend what is theirs.
But their journey is not without joy and love. Together, they face every struggle, including an unplanned pregnancy. Despite the perils of bringing a child into a world of chaos, their baby is a new beginning for themselves and a symbol of hope for the other survivors they find along the way.
This is the story of their journey to find a place to begin a new life, and a home in each other.
 
Ω
Tales from the End Book 1.5
The Horsemen L.A.'s mayor has declared quarantine to try to halt the spread of the Infection. Pearl sets off across the city to buy supplies, but already the world is changing. Something strange is in the air. The Horsemen are coming ...Veronica When Veronica's mother doesn't come home from work and no one answers the phone when she calls for help, a nine-year-old girl is thrown into the chaos of a world coming to an end. Veronica decides it's up to her to find her family. "Veronica" is the story of a little girl's courage in the face of the end of all things."I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" They called her Shadowfax-- the mare Carly and Justin found on their travels. But before she was found by Carly, the retired dressage horse was known as Cloud. An unusual tale of the end, told through the eyes of a confused and lonely horse, left in her pasture.Birthday (A previously-published bonus story.) Carly knows Justin has never celebrated his birthday, and after society crumbled, no one knows what date it is, anyway. But she wants to do something special for him. Celebrating the little things helps them keep hope alive, and as a blizzard rages outside, a small gesture of love warms their home.
Tales of courage, tales of survival... Tales from the End.
Ω
The Land of The Shadow Book 2
After surviving the Infection and a perilous journey through the wasteland that was once the United States, Carly and Justin have found a safe home in the isolated town of Colby.Even so, balancing the duties of survival and a growing family isn’t easy. As they emerge as leaders, they face difficult questions about justice in a lawless land, basic human rights, and freedom in a world where strength defines worth. More than ever, they have to rely on one another for strength and support during the darkest of times. The Crisis is far from over. Their fences won’t keep the world out forever, and a new threat is emerging—a gang of predators who see the town as easy pickings. When danger looms over Colby, Carly must decide how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. It’s a journey down the long and broken road through The Land of the Shadow.
  TWCS-Cover-Reveal-Banner

Cover reveal - The Crosstown Kid by Richard Weir #thriller


COVER REVEAL

The Crosstown Kid
by
Richard Weir

About The Crosstown Kid:

In the low-income part of a Florida town, kids get flushed into the gangland sewer every day. So when beat cop Rob spots a kid training on a track—trying, in other words, to actually be something—he’s intrigued.

Against the advice of his partner, he investigates the Kid and his family. What he uncovers unnerves him: the Kid’s father was a cop himself, gunned down by friendly fire. Before he knows it, Rob has uncovered a tale of police corruption and clandestine gang activity that may cost even more officers their lives.

Will helping the Kid mean exposing his own family to the corrupt cops?

Sometimes, extending your hand in help will only drag you down.


Book Details:
Title: The Crosstown Kid
Author Name: Richard Weir
Genre(s): Thriller, Police, Crime
ISBN: 978-1-68009-057-4
Release Date: 02/06/2015

Pre-Order and Read an Excerpt on Musa Publishing, LLC's website:  

About the Author:

You can find out all about Richard at his website:  

Cover Reveal Coordinated By:


Friday, January 23, 2015

Cover reveal: Nobody's Goddess by Amy McNulty #M9BFridayReveals #giveaway


M9B-Friday-Reveal
Welcome to the Cover Reveal for
Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1)
by Amy McNulty
presented by Month9Books!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
Nobody's Goddess
In a village of masked men, each loves only one woman and must follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.
Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that binds men and women together, seventeen year old Noll is just done with it. She’s lost all her childhood friends as they’ve paired off, but the worst blow was when her closest companion, Jurij, finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who has the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is willing to lose.
add to goodreads
Title: Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1)
Publication date: April 21, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Amy McNulty
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---About-the-Author
Amy McNultyAmy McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently spends her days alternatively writing on business and marketing topics and primarily crafting stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.
Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
(Winners will receive their book on release day)
Button

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Cover reveal - Never Never by Brianna Shrum #ya #fairytale

 Cover reveal for Never Never by Brianna Shrum


Title: Never Never
Author: Brianna Shrum
Release Date: September 2015
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Synopsis: James Hook is a child who only wants to grow up.

When he meets Peter Pan, a boy who loves to pretend and is intent on never becoming a man, James decides he could try being a child—at least briefly. James joins Peter Pan on a holiday to Neverland, a place of adventure created by children’s dreams, but Neverland is not for the faint of heart. Soon James finds himself longing for home, determined that he is destined to be a man. But Peter refuses to take him back, leaving James trapped in a world just beyond the one he loves. A world where children are to never grow up.

But grow up he does.       
                      
And thus begins the epic adventure of a Lost Boy and a Pirate.

This story isn’t about Peter Pan; it’s about the boy whose life he stole. It’s about a man in a world that hates men. It’s about the feared Captain James Hook and his passionate quest to kill the Pan, an impossible feat in a magical land where everyone loves Peter Pan.

Except one.





 

Author Bio:

Brianna Shrum lives in Colorado with her high-school-sweetheart-turned-husband, two boys, and two big, floppy hound dogs. She thinks chai tea is proof of magic in the world, and loves all things kissy, magical, and strange. She'd totally love to connect with you. You can find her saying ridiculous things on Twitter @briannashrum

Author Social Media Links:





Wednesday, January 21, 2015

4 Star #bookreview for Larry Brook's The Seventh Thunder

Today I'm reviewing The Seventh Thunder by Larry Brooks.

Book blurb from Amazon:

When committed agnostic Gabriel Stone’s wife dies in an unlikely airline disaster, he pours himself into the writing of a story that has haunted him since his youth—a novel his devout wife had warned him never to finish. Inspired by a visit to the island of Patmos, he is fascinated with the visions beheld there by St. John The Divine while in political exile for his beliefs. Those visions included terrifying events delivered by what John described as “seven thunders,” which he was instructed to withhold, to seal up and “write them not” (Revelation 10:4). As Stone becomes entrenched in his speculative interpretation of what those visions might have been, an embedded code within the Book of Revelation itself reveals startling connections to covert operations that are about to tear the world’s political landscape to shreds, perhaps signaling the beginning of the prophesied end of times.

As Stone’s novel nears publication, he finds himself the pawn in a war between superpowers and supernatural forces, each hoping to control the book, each driven by hidden agendas beyond Stone’s comprehension. Facing choices that are at once spiritual and life-dependent, with global stakes pivoting on his ability to accept the unbelievable and stop the unthinkable, The Seventh Thunder is a secular thriller that stops at nothing short of our very souls hanging in the balance, while ringing frighteningly relevant to today’s headlines. Winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award for best novel in the SUSPENSE/THRILLER category.





My Review:
I jumped at the chance to read The Seventh Thunder for several reasons. Larry Brook’s is my hero for his Story Engineering and other books on writing. Plus, this topic is one I enjoy – like Dan Brown’s books - a modern look at religion and the bible.

The Seventh Thunder is certainly akin to Dan Brown’s books. The energy, twists, and insightful looks at biblical history, they’re all there. And quite obviously, Mr. Brooks knows how to craft a story to keep the reader from putting the book down.

So for all of that, the book gets top marks from me. I’m not going to rehash the blurb on the possibility I might accidentally give away spoilers. But I enjoyed getting to know the main character Gabriel Stone, felt the loss of his wife and his excitement that his book would be published for big numbers. Using a computer to pull future information from Revelations and other ancient scrolls might have been a bit farfetched as far as technique, but I loved the concept.

There are some things that pulled me from the story occasionally. There were several statements that felt like author intrusion with regard to a political bias, and even one character who would clearly not be liberal had a thought that felt totally wrong. There are a LOT of characters in this book and I can’t say their voices were unique, nor their motivations clear (some of that was purposeful, I realize), but the result is that it was hard to follow in places and know who to root for. I felt a bit like coming into a Bond flick 20 minutes late sometimes – the action and tension were great, but I felt lost. This was added to by so many of the characters motivated by belief rather than knowledge even as information was accumulated. It all worked out, these were short term confusions - and maybe just me being a dope!

There were several conversations without sufficient dialogue tags or action and given some of the above, it took work to figure out who was speaking from context. There were a couple cases where continuing conversation was not handled correctly with quotation marks, which forced me to reread, and in my kindle version, paragraph tabbing was inconsistent.


But overall it was a wild ride that I enjoyed and would certainly recommend to people who like this genre. Well done, I rate this at 4 stars.

Buy from Amazon here.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Did you miss these #MG #Month9Books ? #Giveaway


M9B-Friday-Reveal

Hey all! Welcome to Tantrum Books and Month9Books Middle Grade Books You May Have Missed Blitz! Check out all of our 2014 titles below and enter for a chance to win 1 of 3 prize packs of eBooks! International.

Click on the cover for book information.



Tantrum Titles



Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway
(3) winners will receive eBook prize packs of 5 Month9Books MG titles of your choice!
International
Button

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Review - Dismantling Evan by Venessa Kimball #ya #bullying #romance


 Blurb (from Goodreads): Life is unstable...
…What will be the trigger to dismantle it? 

When high school senior Evangeline "Evan" Phillips moves half way across the country with her parents to a quaint town in Texas, it should be a chance to start over.
It should be. 
Typical of Evan, she doesn’t share her parents’ optimism. Always the loner, she is prepared to hide behind work at the school newspaper until graduation. That is the seemingly bulletproof plan until she meets her new neighbors, Gavin and Brody Ferguson. 
The more Evan gets to know her neighbors, their band of friends, and frenemies, the more unsettling her new high school and community gets in Braxton Springs, Texas.
As Evan unwittingly digs deeper into the lives of those around her, her own skeletons begin to surface leaving her vulnerable and scrambling to keep her own sanity and reputation. Will Evan be able to get control over her spiraling secrets while discovering friendship and love for the first time?
Or will the issues and pressures of life as a band of not-so-average teens in a very typical high school become too much, resulting in the tragic dismantlement of an entire community and Evan herself? 
Dismantling Evan is a fresh and edgy work of literary fiction that snapshots how life as a teen in modern society can be unstable and the social issues and pressures revolving around them can tip the fleeting stability of society over the edge.

Purchase at Amazon

My review:

Dismantling Evan is a raw look at the realities of teenage life, cruel behavior toward anyone perceived as different or merely an easy target, as well as the tendencies of society to hide real difficulties or throw medication at a problem without truly understanding it.

Evan’s (Evangeline) family moved her from a difficult situation in San Francisco, where she’d broken down when peer pressure became too much. As well as having her see a psychiatrist and take anti-depressants, her parents thought a move to a smaller community would help Evan with a new start. Sadly, small towns are often the cruelest. Everyone knows everything and social bias builds through generations.

In this Texas town, Evan has to deal with her own depression (but is it really clinical?), her mom’s past reaction to similar issues and a generation of gossip and judgment. On top of that, she makes friends with the “wrong” people. One is a slightly disconnected, but brilliant boy that no one understands. Another is his hot brother that just can’t seem to get on the same page with Evan and her desire to help the brother although they are clearly attracted to each other. Another neighbor could have been quite popular until she turned on the snobs, so she’s also on the undesirable list.

This means that Evan has friends and slowly starts building normal relationships, but still, below that lies possible clinical depression or signs of polar disorder. Or is it just normal teenage desire not to be controlled by parent who are naturally suspicious of her behavior or the friends she’s made. Friends that the social ladder tells her parents just aren’t the best examples.

One thing I appreciated in the book is that it is never 100% clear if Evan needs drugs more than just a stable environment with accepting friends. The drugs seem to help in some ways, but the relationships she develops could have been a bigger influence on her confidence to stand up to schoolroom cruelty.

And in the end, that really doesn’t matter. That’s just Evan’s personal battle, which helps her take on a bigger battle. Real cruelty to anyone different and unable to defend themselves. Because what kids (and adults) need to learn is that those identified as weak have a breaking point. And the solution can be those events that make the evening news and twitter feeds fly.

Dismantling Evan covers great subject matter in a real and personal way. For that, the book is well worth reading. From a technical aspect, the writing could be cleaner, smoother, less telling, more showing. But that’s the editor in me and shouldn’t prevent most readers from enjoying the book and hopefully taking some bit of it into their own lives, whether to change their own behavior or take a stand when we see others being attacked.

I give this 3.5 stars – recommended. (On my scale, a book must be near perfect to receive a 5, this book would have been a solid 4 but for the writing nits.) I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.