Release Day Blitz: The Body Institute by Carol Riggs

The Body Institute

by Carol Riggs

Release Date: 09/01/15

Entangled Teen

Summary from Goodreads:

Meet Morgan Dey, one of the top teen Reducers at The Body Institute.

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, Morgan can temporarily take over another girl’s body, get her in shape, and then return to her own body—leaving her client slimmer, more toned, and feeling great. Only there are a few catches…

For one, Morgan won’t remember what happens in her “Loaner” body. Once she’s done, she won’t recall walks with her new friend Matt, conversations with the super-cute Reducer she’s been text-flirting with, or the uneasy feeling she has that the director of The Body Institute is hiding something. Still, it’s all worth it in the name of science. Until the glitches start…

Suddenly, residual memories from her Loaner are cropping up in Morgan’s mind. She’s feeling less like herself and more like someone else. And when protests from an anti–Body Institute organization threaten her safety, she’ll have to decide if being a Reducer is worth the cost of her body and soul…

Buy Links:

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About the Author

I'm a YA writer represented by Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary. My sci-fi novel THE BODY INSTITUTE explores the themes of society, identity, and body image. I live in the beautiful, green state of Oregon and have a Studio Arts degree; I'm an SCBWI member. 

You'll usually find me in my writing cave, surrounded by my dragon collection and the characters in my head. I also enjoy reading--mostly young adult novels--as well as drawing, painting, and quilting. I also attend writing conferences, walk with my husband, and enjoy music and dance of all kinds. 

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Cover Reveal: Touching Fate by Brenda Drake

Touching Fate

by Brenda Drake 

Release Date: 10/13/15

Entangled Teen: Crave

Summary from Goodreads:

Aster Layne believes in physics, not psychics. A tarot card reading on the Ocean City Boardwalk should have been a ridiculous, just-for-fun thing. It wasn't. Aster discovers she has a veryunscientific gift—with a simple touch of the cards, she can change a person's fate.

Reese Van Buren is cursed. Like the kind of old-school, centuries-old curse that runs in royal families. Every firstborn son is doomed to die on his eighteenth birthday—and Reese's is coming up fast. Bummer. He tries to distract himself from his inevitable death...only to find the one person who can save him.

Aster doesn't know that the hot Dutch guy she's just met needs her help–or that he’s about to die.

But worst of all…she doesn't know that her new gift comes with dark, dark consequences that can harm everyone she loves.

About the Author
Brenda Drake, the youngest of three children, grew up an Air Force brat and the continual new kid at schooluntil her family settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Brenda’s fondest memories growing up is of hereccentric, Irish grandmother’s animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was onlyfitting that she would choose to write young adult and middle grade novels with a bend toward thefantastical. When Brenda’s not writing or doing the social media thing, she’s haunting libraries, bookstores,and coffee shops or reading someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).

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Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

*This review has minor spoilers!*

Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Publisher: Dial
Format: Audio Book
Blurb: You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. 

Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back. 

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Review: 

This was one of those books that I just don’t know how I feel about.  It’s not bad, but I’m not sure I would describe it as “great" either.  “Good” works, but it doesn’t quite convey this absence of feeling I have.  It was unusual, for sure, which fits it right into the gothic horror category.  

Violet is so in love with River that it is a little annoying in the beginning, but it soon turns out to be something she can’t necessarily control.  It made me a little uncomfortable, admittedly, because of the abusive undertones (SPOILER: River is manipulating her emotions A LOT).  Their relationship was very Twilight-esque to be honest, and the fact that Violet doesn’t run screaming from River when she learns *SPOILER* just how many people he has murdered, I was starting to fade out.  Okay, spoilers done.

The writing in Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was suitable to the genre.  However it was pretty pretentious, because Violet is pretentious.  She was raised by artist parents, and often references different kinds of painting styles and artists (ones I assume are famous and I’ve never heard of as I'm not into art).  I think unless you’re into art many of the references will be lost on you (as they were on me).  Other than that I found the writing was well done, and Tucholke did a good job describing the settings.

So to conclude, I liked the writing (minus the constant art references), and the storyline was pretty good until it became more like an abusive relationship.

Release Day Blitz: Superstition by Lucy Fenton

Superstition

by Lucy Fenton 

Release Date: 08/03/15

Summary from Goodreads:

What happens when your childhood nightmares of being bitten by strange creatures in a dark wood aren’t just dreams?

Sixteen-year-old Arden St. John’s life takes a strange turn when she finds an unusual animal injured near her new house on the south east coast of Australia. When she takes it to the local vet, a terrible truth is inadvertently exposed to her. 

She discovers a secret underworld, where witches are commonplace and trolls masquerade as queen bees, terrorising the other students with impunity. A world where vampires traffic in the lives of children, draining their bodies once they reach maturity. Where adults auction their own children to extend their lives.

Arden finds out she’s one of those kids, her life traded by the mother she never knew. Now she’s caught up in this ancient and corrupt economy operating just below the surface of modern society. She’s a hot commodity, and it’s only a matter of time before the vampire who bought her comes to claim his prize. 

But Arden’s not going down without a fight.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Excerpt: 

The further into the bush she went, the more anxious Arden felt. If something happened to me, how long would it be before Dad noticed? I could be dead for days before someone found me, Arden thought, unhappily. The compulsion to turn around and seek out others grew stronger and her footsteps slowed.

And then through the trees, she saw something. Curiosity overcoming her disquiet, at first she thought it was a rocky outcrop and moved towards it, trying to see what was veiled by the leaves of the trees. The flash of sunlight whitened out her vision as she stepped out of the shade into the clearing. Blinded, she waited for her eyes to adjust. Squinting, the blurred shapes gradually resolved into the ruins of a stone building. The roof was gone and the walls stuck up like the blunt teeth of a fallen giant. Arden walked around what had once been a large structure that had been left to crumble back into the earth. It was built on a headland, the view of the ocean clear on the far side. A lone gum tree clung to the edge of the cliff, roots visible where the earth had crumbled away. Dead, its bare branches stood out starkly white against the dark clouds forming over the ocean. There was a storm coming in, but it was still a way out to sea. Catching sight of a marking on the stone, she moved towards it to examine it more closely. It was weathered almost flat, but tracing the rough gritty surface with her finger, she made out the distinctive shape of a convict arrow.

Amazed, she walked in through a doorway, trying to work out what type of building it had been. There had been a large central room with many tiny rooms opening from it. They were small, storerooms perhaps? Exploring deeper into the ruins, there was a room that had been more protected at the rear and the purpose became apparent. The stubbed remains of bars were still embedded in the stone in one section and in the corner of the room were cross hatched markings on the walls, counting off the days. She was standing in a convict gaol. 

About the Author
L. C. Fenton lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and two children. In addition to her cake- making business, she works as a freelance copywriter and pens occasional articles for various online magazines.

Not being one of those people who had a burning desire to be anything in particular, L. C. worked her way alphabetically backwards through the available degrees at Sydney University. Surprisingly, given the amount of fun she had at school, L.C. finally managed to graduate with a completely unemployable degree in Philosophy. A Law degree soon followed, however, simply to make it possible for some organization to hire her.
After ten soul-destroying years wandering aimlessly in the corporate wilderness, L. C. threw it all in and reassessed. Deciding to bring the "one day I will write a book" idea to the present, she started and hasn't stopped. As a huge fan of the romance genre, she writes the kinds of books that she enjoys to read.
In her spare time, L. C. Fenton...actually she has no spare time. She sleeps or reads copious amounts of romance novels instead of sleeping.

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Book Blitz + Giveaway: Crow's Rest by Angelica R. Jackson

Crow's Rest
by Angelica R. Jackson
Release Date: May 12th 2015

Summary from Goodreads:

Avery Flynn arrives for a visit at her Uncle Tam's, eager to rekindle her summertime romance with her crush-next-door, Daniel.

But Daniel’s not the sweet, neurotic guy she remembers—and she wonders if this is her Daniel at all. Or if someone—some thing—has taken his place.

Her quest to find the real Daniel—and get him back—plunges Avery into a world of Fae and changelings, where creatures swap bodies like humans change their socks, and magic lives much closer to home than she ever imagined. 

Buy Links:

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Crow’s Rest Book Trailer:

And check out the illustrated companion, A Compendium of the Faer Folke! Available as a free download!

Top Ten Places Where the Border Between Our World and Faerie Is Weak 

1. Las Vegas: think about it—it would explain so much. What better place for the Fae to hide in plain sight than where people walk around in elaborate costumes every day? 

2. Arch in Balboa Park: okay, so I can’t remember exactly where this was, but as teenagers, some friends and I were wandering around by the outdoor theater in Balboa Park at dusk. I swear that one of the arches was not just an arch, but a doorway. 

3. Barton Woods: with views like this, how could it not be a glimpse into Faerie? 

4. The cave on Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland: our family had annual passes to Disneyland, and lots of summer days were spent on the island (partly because I didn’t have much patience for lines at the rides). Back when it was known as a racially insensitive _____ Joe’s Cave instead of Dead Man’s Grotto (as I believe it’s now called), all kinds of spooky, unexplainable things happened in there 

5. Belvedere Castle in Central Park: you might think this is just a 19th-century folly, but I’ve always suspected that it’s a mirror castle, meaning there’s a corresponding (but oh so much better) castle on the Fae side of the border 

6. Davis Arboretum: the arboretum on the campus of University of California, Davis, is a pleasant-enough place to stroll and study plants, but there’s this one spot where the path passes under the road, and I don’t think it’s just empty shadows under there… 

7. Hope Valley Aspens: the aspen trees around Carson Pass and Hope Valley truly do have an otherworldly beauty about them. This spot is actually near a main road, but within a few short steps all you can hear is the sound of trickling water and twirling leaves 

  

8. White Wells baths: this historic bath house in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, has a documented visit from the Little People, back in the 19th century. They scampered about the walls like squirrels when they were interrupted. 

9. Preston Castle: Built as the Preston School of Industry in Ione, California, the hauntings at this castle could also be signs of a weakened Faerie border 

 

10. Hollywood: same situation as Las Vegas—it explains so much about the beautiful, Hollyweird celebrities, that they’re actually from Faerie 

(All photos by Angelica R. Jackson) 

About the Author:

In keeping with her scattered Gemini nature, Angelica R. Jackson has far too many interests to list here.

She has an obsession with creating more writing nooks in the home she shares with her husband and two corpulent cats in California's Gold Country. Fortunately, the writing nooks serve for reading and cat cuddling too.

Other pastimes include cooking for food allergies (not necessarily by choice, but she’s come to terms with it), photography, and volunteering at a local no-kill sanctuary.

She blogs at Angelic Muse, and is a contributing member of Operation Awesome and the Fearless Fifteeners.

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