Saturday, March 30, 2013

Vengeance Bound Tour Stop: Guest Post + Giveaway

Today I've got the Vengeance Bound blog tour dropping by Xpresso Reads! I've got a guest post by Justina, as well as a fab giveaway! Thanks to AToMR Tours for having me on this tour!



Vengeance Bound
Justina Ireland
Publication date: April 2nd 2013
by Simon & Schuster BFYR


The Goddess Test meets Dexter in an edgy, compelling debut about one teen’s quest for revenge… no matter how far it takes her.

Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies—the hawk and the serpent—lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.

Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.


The Paranormal in Vengeance Bound, by Justina Ireland


So, writing about the paranormal aspect is kind of hard for me.  Quite a few folks have asked me where I came up with using the Furies in the way I did, and the short answer is “Because I solve plot problems by throwing in something ridiculous.”  

The long answer?  I find writing books without magic to be incredibly boring.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love reading contemporary, especially contemporary YA.  But I cannot write it.  It’s boring.  I find my characters moving from place to place, doing mundane things like buying groceries and having conversations about the weather.  And every time I think to myself that I need to spice things up, well, that’s when things like chimaeras show up.

But that’s another book.  This post is about Vengeance Bound.

I settled on using the Furies because I needed a vehicle for Amelie to exact her Justice.  She’s an angry girl, and with good reason.  She’s had a lot thrown at her, a lot of pain and a lot of loss.  At first I thought to make her a Harpy, but that didn’t jive with her personality (although I do have a Harpy character in my arsenal.  Again, another book).

But the Furies? They worked perfectly.  I tweaked their back story a little to fit the needs of my story (my Furies are evolved from a serpent and a hawk, and they only prey on men), but otherwise, they are very nearly the same creatures that populate Greek mythology.  By placing them in Amelie’s head I was able to create this back and forth that really propels the plot forward.

And that is always a good thing.


About the Author





Justina's Website / Goodreads / Twitter
Justina Ireland enjoys dark chocolate, dark humor, and is not too proud to admit that she’s still afraid of the dark. She lives with her husband, kid, and dog in Pennsylvania. Vengeance Bound is her first novel.

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Giveaway
Thanks to ATOMR tours, you can enter to win a copy of Vengeance Bound and a swag pack!

Open to US & Canadian addresses
Giveaway ends at midnight!
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