Month: April 2019

Apr 30

{Excerpt+Giveaway} As Silver Is to the Moon by R. A. Watt

As Silver Is to the Moon R. A. Watt Publication date: April 28th 2019 Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult New school. First love. A psychotic werewolf that wanted me dead. And it was only week one in Santa Isadora. For fifteen-year-old Teavan Laurent and his older sister Suzanne, Santa Isadora seemed like a sleepy and idyllic California town to finish high school after their unexpected move west from New York City. As he struggles to make friends in a town shrouded in secrets, Teavan soon finds himself the target of an irrational tormentor and rumored-to-be werewolf. The revenge-obsessed psycho vows to wipe out Teavan and his small family due to past wrongs beyond Teavan’s control or knowledge. The twisted legacy left to him by his late grandfather brings Teavan at odds with everything he knows to be true—or at least everything he thought to be true. The impossible truth of the tale begins to gain traction at his first wolf sighting, and Teavan and Suzanne soon find themselves in the crosshairs… Read more »

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Apr 29

{Interview+Giveaway} A GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER by Bev Thomas

Thank you so much to Bev Thomas for stopping by Book Briefs today to chat about her book, a Good enough Mother, which releases tomorrow. Check out her interview below and then enter the giveaway to try and win a copy of the book for yourself! The protagonist of A GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER is Ruth Hartland, an experienced therapist who specializes in helping trauma victims. You were also a clinical psychologist for many years, and have an in-depth understanding of this world. What made you want to explore the patient-therapist relationship in fiction and how did your real-life experiences inform the novel? In my work, I had always been very interested in grief and loss – powerful emotions that not only underpin the human condition, but frequently find their way into the therapy room. But I was initially reluctant to explore the therapeutic world in fiction, as I didn’t want the focus to be on a patient. It was only when I flipped the concept and made the protagonist a… Read more »

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Apr 19

{Review+Giveaway} S.S.S. Year One (Supernatural Spy Academy) by Yumoyori Wilson

S.S.S. Year One is the first book in the Supernatural Spy Academy series by Yumoyori Wilson. The Supernatural Spy Academy starts off with a really cool concept. With an origin of many super hero world stories, there was a change that spread throughout earth which changed people into witches and other supernatural creatures. The Supernatural Spy Academy is a prestigious school where shifters train to become spies. But witches have never graduated from the academy. This is something that our main character, Silver Spell Solange (see what the author did there with another SSS?) is hoping to change. She has always dreamed of graduating from the Academy, but getting in and staying in is no easy feat. Their entrance exam is essentially a dangerous magical quest, which you know is completely up my alley. Silver was a decent main character, and I am starting to warm up to her group of classmates/quest teammates. But honestly, some of their storylines felt a bit forced, and were a little off putting to… Read more »

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Apr 16

{Excerpt} TOMBSTONES by KC Enders

Tombstones, the final standalone novel in the Beekman Hills series by KC Enders is ready to set your heart on fire. Fans of military and secret baby romance will love this angsty yet humorous read. It was supposed to be just a month of fun, but neither of them thought they’d find forever between tragedy and tombstones.

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Apr 12

{Guest Post+Giveaway} The Isle of Gold by Seven Jane

Today we have the author of Isle of Gold, Seven Jane here to tell us a little but about the characters! Meet the Characters (Tell us about your main characters! Looks, personality, some background story, and/or maybe a few quotes from the story?) Evangeline Evangeline Dahl is the cunning and successful proprietress of the tavern Goodnight Mermaid on Isla Perla, and the rumored lover of Captain Erik Winters of the pirate ship Riptide. She is described as having both unsurpassed beauty as well as possessing of the unpredictable personality of the ocean itself. When Evangeline vanishes from Isla Perla, Winters bleeds the waters red in his unrelenting search to find her. He believes she has been taken hostage by the gods of the sea as retribution for becoming so powerful in her ability to manipulate and control the trade of merchants and pirates sailing the Caribbean. It is on this quest that Merrin joins the Riptide’s crew and we begin our tale. The true identity of Evangeline, or of how she arrived in Isla Perla,… Read more »

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Apr 10

{Review+Giveaway} Smoke and Key by @KelseyJSutton @EntangledTeen

Smoke and Key is a young adult paranormal by author Kelsey Sutton. First off, I have to just point out how crazy beautiful the cover is. I was immediately drawn in because of it, but then the mysterious summary really hooked me. I had to know what Smoke and Key was all about. And talk about starting the book off with a bang. The first chapter was completely creepy and spooky and set the stage for a haunting and mysterious story that I simply could not put down. Smoke and Key was fascinating and something wholly different than I was expecting. If you are a fan of gothic style mysteries, I think you will absolutely love this novel. In Smoke and Key we start out with Key finding her way into the Under. The Under is a world where some individuals find themselves after death. It is named the under because it is literally the ground underneath their graves, and the only way to enter it is to fall into… Read more »

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Apr 08

{Release Day Review+Giveaway} The Boyfriend Bid by @JodieAndrefski @EntangledTeen

The Boyfriend Bid is a young adult contemporary romance by author Jodie Andrefski. The Boyfriend Bid was a really cute romance story from Engalanged Teen’s Crush line. I am always happy to pick up a new book by their crush imprint because I always know what I can trust to get out of the story. I always know it is going to be a super cute romance, with great characters and a healthy dose of heart, mostly done in a high school setting. And The Boyfriend Bid delivered on all of those elements. There was one aspect of the story that bothered me but it didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the story. In the Boyfriend Bid we meet our two main characters, Sarah and Chance. Chance is the school’s new guy and Sarah starts off pretty closed off to him. At first Sarah was a bit offputting to me because she was so, soo guarded, but watching Chance knock down her walls one brick at a time was… Read more »

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Apr 06

{Excerpt+Giveaway} Ruins of Fate by Jamie A. Waters

Ruins of Fate Jamie A. Waters (The Omni Towers, Prequel) Publication date: April 4th 2019 Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic One wrong decision, and the future will crumble… Skye Levanthe traded everything she owned in order to secure a place for herself and her son, Veridian, in a scavenging camp. But all contracts have an expiration date. Desperate to obtain the resources they need to survive, Skye agreed to navigate the dangerous ruins of fallen cities to search for tradeable materials. When a strange storm forced Skye and her scavenging partner into forbidden territory controlled by The Omni Towers, a ruin collapsed, nearly taking their lives and destroying countless others. Only one other person survived the ruin collapse: a mysterious young girl named Kayla. Faced with the decision to save her son or abandon her new foster daughter to a terrible fate, Skye agreed to the only possible course of action—to go into exile and take on the Omni traders in their own den. No one ever said survival would… Read more »

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Apr 04

{Guest Post+Giveaway} Lanterns In The Sky by P.S. Malcolm @PaganMalcolm

If You Love These Books, You’ll Love Lanterns In The Sky I am a huge fan of royal revolutions, magical fantasy and powerful, badass characters—which is why I read these books as well as write them! In this post, I want to help you figure out if Lanterns In The Sky is your next go-to read by sharing a couple of similar books with relating themes, settings or style. You might even discover another book you haven’t heard of yet (did someone day two for one?) So buckle up, and let’s take a look shall we? Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard I’m sure most people who read YA fantasy have heard of this book by now. Red Queen kind of blew up—and I definitely see why. Some of the best parts of this book were the magic structure in this world, the worldbuilding, the stakes and the plot twists! (If you’ve read this one you know exactly what I’m referring to). Enter Lanterns In The Sky—a story set in… Read more »

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Apr 03

{Interview+Excerpt} Throw by Rubén Degollado

Why did you write this book? I wanted a book that spoke to my experience as a young Latino and the experiences of my Latino students. The books I tried to give them were either inauthentic caricatures of Latinos or did not speak to the tough reality many of these students face on a daily basis. The one book they did relate to year after year was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I thought, what if I give them a modern Chicano Outsiders? What if I gave them a novel telling a completely different story about teens living on the fringes of acceptable society, but whose hopes, desires, and regrets were as relatable to my white students as they were to my Latino students? It was something I knew I had to write myself. Is this book autobiographical? The main part of the narrative is completely fiction. However, virtually all the back stories, the memories of the main character, Güero, are from my own experiences and a few are from… Read more »