Blog Tour: OF POSEIDON - Anna Banks (Guest Post)

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Title: Of Poseidon

Author: Anna Banks

Release Date: May 22nd 2012

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Blog Tour: Guest Post (WHY MERMAIDS?)

Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves  that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help--no matter what the risk.

 

 

 

  BLOG TOUR - GUEST POST: 

By  debut YA author Anna Banks 

Why Mermaids—Ahem, Syrena?

Why did I choose to write about mermaids? The short answer: Because I didn’t think the market was ready for a YA Sasquatch romance. (Don’t think I won’t write one either. I would be “that person”.)

The long answer is: Since the market isn’t ready for a YA Sasquatch romance, I almost hurt myself trying to figure out what the market was ready for. There were angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, and even trolls. And none of those were my thing, and even if they were, I didn’t feel I could bring anything new to the table for those categories because let’s face it, some of them were done very very super duper well. Sometimes you have to know when to say “Uncle”, ya know?

Then one day I’m home sick from the day job and I’m curled up on the couch watching this documentary on how they recently discovered the colossal squid. I’m talking the monster squid that you see depicted in ye olde world drawings with giant tentacles wrapped around a poor innocent ship’s cannons:

Yeah. They found a complete one-of-those-things in 2003. Did you hear what I said??? 2003! So up until 2003, most scientists were skeptical of this creature’s actual existence. They thought it was a silly myth.

Which got my pitiful, flu-infested mind thinking. What else could be out there? What if all those rotten-toothed smelly fishermen actually saw mermaids too? Even Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen three mermaids. Christopher Columbus was a smart guy. He found a giant land mass, after all. He must have seen mermaids. He wouldn’t lie.

So, mermaids it was. Oh, but not just any mermaids. They had to be Syrena (you know, the Polish word for mermaids because that’s way cooler). And they had to be real. Scientifically feasible, at the very least. No magic. No spells. Only fact and possibility and mystery.

That’s when I set out to “create” a mermaid that could actually exist.

And so, OF POSEIDON was born. Well, it was written and then rewritten and then edited and then revised and then edited and then I spilled coffee on it. And then, OF POSEIDON was born!

 ADD OF POSEIDON TO YOUR GOODREADS TBR

BIG THANK YOU TO MACMILLAN PUBLISHING - for letting me take part in the blog tour! Guys, Of Poseidon came out 22nd May and it's the best mermaid ahem syrena book I've read! :D GO BUY IT NOW! Also, have you read MY review?

 

Blog Tour: Pretty Amy - Lisa Burstein (Guest Post)

BLOG TOUR: GUEST POST - LISA BURSTEIN (author of PRETTY AMY)

Title: Pretty Amy

Author: Lisa Burstein

Release Date: May 8th 2012

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Blog Tour: Guest Post (IDEA OF PRETTY AMY)

Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over

  BLOG TOUR - GUEST POST: 

By  debut YA author Lisa Burstein

The idea for PRETTY AMY really started out of necessity. I was in grad school and had to write 150 pages of a novel for my dissertation. What I wrote was a funny, angry rant about a Jewish girl named Amy Fleishman who felt like her life sucked and didn't care about sharing those feelings. She had two best friends, Lila and Cassie and a therapist who was desperate to try and help her. I wrote furiously, getting out all the crap I felt when I was in high school about not feeling pretty enough, good enough, special enough. I had a great character study, but it was surely not a book.

A few years passed and I picked it up again. I knew I loved Amy. I knew she could be the catalyst to an amazing story, I just had to figure out what that story was. I knew she had to be put up against a wall to give up any of her secrets and so I came up with her getting arrested. Aside from the fear of death, the fear of captivity is probably one of the most humbling a person can face. I wanted to up the stakes of her being arrested, so I made it on prom night. A night all teens want to be one of the happiest they experience. With that idea, I started. Amy went through a lot of revision and rewrites, more than I want to admit.

First reads of my new version received nice comments from agents, she's funny, she's smart, this book is a rollicking good time, but Amy is not likeable. It killed me. I had a lot of soclose moments before I decided to try again.

So I went back and thought some more. I knew I had to give Amy something to love, something or someone to show that she was capable of love, that she was deserving of being likeable. I knew I wanted it to be a pet. There is something about the way someone loves a pet, or an animal that lets you know who they really are. I went through all the usual suspects- dog- too cutesy, cat- too independent, fish- too wet and thought what about a bird? A talking bird. Basically it could be something for Amy to love and a metaphor for how silent and caged she felt. And, so AJ was born.

With AJ in the book, Amy wasn't just an angry, unlikeable teenager, she was a girl who could only have real feelings and feel real feelings for her parrot. She was a girl who couldn't let anyone in but her bird. She was a girl who needed to teach her parrot to tell her that she was pretty. She was a girl who became complex. It is also where the title came from.

With this version, PRETTY AMY started to get interest and eventually snagged an agent, but would you believe it had to go through yet another rewrite before it was purchased? This time there was an editor request to add a love interest for Amy. So I thought some more. I knew it couldn't just be a typical love interest because Amy's story was anything but typical. I decided to give her two--one totally right for her, but that she couldn't see was right and one totally wrong for her, but that she couldn't see was wrong.

The addition of Aaron and Joe was the magic formula. I even felt it as I was writing. They added an extra layer of drama and showed a completely different side of Amy. After a month of nail biting I heard back from the requesting editor. She loved it. She wanted to buy it.

Amy has gone through so many changes to be who she is now, but each one was one that was needed. I guess my lesson would be don't give up and listen to feedback because sometimes it can be so right!

 ADD PRETTY AMY TO YOUR GOODREADS TBR

BIG THANK YOU TO ENTANGLED PUBLISHING - for letting me take part in the blog tour for this amazing book and for letting me read a review copy! I loved this book when I read it back in March (I think), and I can't wait to post my review early next month! (So sorry for the lateness - too much school and exams :( )  

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  LISA BURSTEIN

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.

CONNECT WITH LISA! 

Twitter 

Goodreads page

Official Site

Blog

Review: Don't You Wish - Roxanne St. Claire

Title: Don't You Wish

Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Genre: YA, Contemporary, (bit) Paranormal

Release Date: July 10th 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Pages: 368

Source: For Review

When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school. 

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.

But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn't as simple as you think.

 ^^ YES. The choice isn't as simple as you think. OMG. This was such an unexpected read and I am so glad I requested in on Netgalley (thank you!). This is one of my favourites and the kind that sticks with you long after you read it and I just want MORE. A perfect contemporary with a little paranormal peeking in.

The concept was very intriguing. What if you were given a chance to live another life? To become popular? To have everyone worship you? Would you wish that? Annie Nutter is a 'nobody' and when she fiddled with her father's invention, and wishes to be 'someone', her life changed forever, literally. I think this is what teens are going through. How many of us once wished that we had a different life? To become a billionaire's daughter and have lots of friends? I think like that. But this book teaches you that everything happens for a reason, and all you go through in life shapes you as a person and makes you STRONGER.

I fell in love with the characters. Crazy Annie Nutter and her 'old' family was just a regular family and they remind me of my family. They have lots of problems and misunderstandings, yes, but in the end, we all love each other and we don't regret anything. I really appreciate that Annie was still the same Annie even when she 'became' Ayla. You know, she could have gone along and stole clothes and jewellery (why do super-rich people steal? I don't understand the 'rush' with that when they have got their own money) like her 'friends' but she didn't. She stayed true to herself, and that's one of the reasons that I respect her.

The love interest was OH SO SWEET. I love that he was a bit geeky and that he wears this old hat (and yet he still looks cute). I enjoyed learning more about his history and his family. The rest of the characters were amazing as well, her mother Emily was depressed in both lives yet you can see she puts her children first.

The ending was totally unpredictable (or was that just me?)! I was so in Annie's head that I wouldn't know what to do - should she go back to being an 'invisible' or stay as a 'perfect' person? The choice isn't simple. She couldn't just do what she wants, but she has to think about other people? If she go back to her old life, then everything would change and it would affect other people too. I really sympathized with her and the ending was very fullfilling yet leaves a very open ending for readers. It was very bittersweet and I JUST LOVE IT OMFG.

Well guys, I know I couldn't write a review and do this book justice but hey, I tried. If you don't buy this - I will hunt you down ;P 

Cover Reveal: MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY - Rachel Harris (NEW COVER)

 

{ MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY }

~ 

{ RACHEL HARRIS }

Blurb:

On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

Some of you might remember that I took part in this cover reveal before, you can find that HERE. They decided to re-design the cover and while I like both of them, I prefer the old cover girl but I adore this new background and font.

The old cover - which one do you like better?

 

Author website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

(YouTube trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYacoZNjz_A)

 

Never-Before-Seen Excerpt from MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY:

“I thought I’d teach you a dance from where I come from,” I tell him. “One that’s much easier than that multi-step mess inside.”

            I place my left hand on Lorenzo’s shoulder and slip my right one into his. I pause to listen to the music floating over the tinkling voices and bubbling fountain, and begin counting the three-beat tempo. “One, two, three. One, two, three.”

            I stand still, only my head moving, slowly nodding with my words so he can hear the rhythm.

            When his head begins subtly bobbing with mine, I show him how to add his feet. He takes a tentative step forward with his left while I step back with my right, then we side step, close, and repeat the steps with our other feet, all while I lightly whisper the beat count.

            The breeze picks up, blowing my skirt and skimming my veil across the back of my neck. Chills run down my spine, but the warmth coursing through my veins from being in his arms provides a delicious contradiction.

            Lorenzo continues nervously darting his eyes to our feet, but he is dancing. As he relaxes into the movement, his shoulders rising and falling with the steps, the confidence he always seems to exude creeps back on his face, and he tightens the hold around me. Our faces are kissably close, our lips a hairs breadth away from touching. I stare into the chocolate depths of his eyes and the rest of the ball fades away. The only music guiding our steps is my light whisper and the erratic rhythm of our breathing. Time slows. Lorenzo grins.

            “I think you got it,” I say breathlessly, running my hand along the soft fabric of his shoulder, feeling the rock-hard muscles underneath.

            My body curls inward, pressing against his. The proper form for the waltz is a straight spine and shoulders back, but if there was ever a time to break the rules, this is it.