Cover Reveal, Interview + Giveaway: Everything Breaks

I'm excited to be part of the cover reveal for Everything Breaks by Vicki Grove, coming from Penguin in the fall. This contemporary sounds great and today you'll be treated to a short interview with Vicki, and a chance to win an ARC!

--

Everything Breaks
Vicki Grove

Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication date: October 3rd 2013
by Putnam Juvenile

Synopsis:

Tucker was supposed to be the designated driver. But there was something about the beauty of that last true summer night, that made him want to feel out-of-control just once. He drank so much and so quickly that he was instantly sick. That left Trey to drive. "I'll catch up to you later," were the last words Tucker would ever say to his friends as he heaved by the side of the road. It was the last time Tucker would ever see them alive.

Tucker’s grief and guilt are just about unbearable and he wonders how he can continue living himself. When he meets the Ferryman who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead, Tucker gets a chance to decide: live or die. The temptation to join his three best friends on the other side may be too much for Tucker to overcome.   A gripping, haunting and emotional read.

Interview with Vicki Grove

---

---

Hi Vicki! What made you decide to write Everything Breaks?

I began writing this book while both of my parents were very ill in 2010, and I did several rewrites while I was mourning their deaths, which came within a few months of each other.  They were elderly and I'd been their caretaker for several years, so it was expected.   It was extremely hard work taking care of them and trying to keep my own act together careerwise, and I did my share of silent griping while I was under the stress of it.  But my heart broke in half when they died, and the character of Tucker's step-grandfather, Bud, is based on my dad.  Since my parents' deaths, I've been asking myself questions that are both fascinating and difficult.   Mostly, I want to know, what lasts?  In Greek mythology there are several heroes that travel to the Underworld to demand answers to some version of this question, and my Oklahoma boy, Tucker, turns out to be another in their line.  His three best friends have just been killed in a drunk driving accident, and through grief and confusion and a load of guilt, he picks up a weird hitchhiker that turns out to be Charon, the Ferryman across the River Acheron from Greek mythology.  I think the most important line in EB comes when Charon off-handedly reveals to Tucker his friend Trey's last words upon reaching the Underworld.   I want to know what Tucker needs to know, and I hope my mom and dad would say about me what Trey says about Tucker when Trey's in that black boat on his way to the other side of the dark river.   By the way, the horrible accident that begins the book is based on a real event from when I was in high school, three boys in a 1967 cherry red Mustang convertible, some drinking, a switch-back curve on a high bluff road that they probably didn't notice in time.

 

This book deals with drinking and driving and the grief that comes with it, how did writing about such a tough subject affect you emotionally?

Every book project definitely is totally affecting in a different way.  I've written two books about racial violence, and those books made me terribly grouchy and difficult to live with for the many months I was immersed in them.  This book is the saddest I've written, but oddly, it helped me heal and stitch my own heart back together.  I felt peaceful by the end.

I always like to have an idea how authors picture their characters, so who you like to see play the role of Tucker if it ever goes on screen?

Eddie Redmayne!  Though he'd have to dye his wonderful red hair black to be a
Quapaw.   Still, I could handle that if he could.

Thanks so much for dropping by, Vicki! Everything Breaks sounds like a very powerful book and I can't wait to read it for myself! :)

Cover Reveal: Shooting Scars by Karina Halle

Shooting Scars

Karina Halle

Series: The Artists Trilogy, #2

Publication date: May 2013

by Metal Blonde Books

A second chance at first love.

There are a few things worth risking everything for - even your life. For Camden McQueen, this is one of them.

Shooting Scars is the second book in The Artists Trilogy and is told from the dual POV of Camden and Ellie.

The Artists Trilogy:

I don't know if you knew but Sins and Needles literally rocked my world! I loved it and I'm so excited for this cover reveal I think it's full of awesome and epic hotness. Plus, the quote on it, totally the best part don't you think? *whistles innocently*

What do you think, lovelies?

Cover Reveal: The Midnight Spell

The Midnight Spell
Rhiannon Frater & Kody Boye
Publication date: February, 2013

 

Best friends since kindergarten, Adam and Christy have always been the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas.  The other kids call Adam gay and Christy a witch.

On both counts the bullies are right.

Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious boy enrolls at school and sets hearts a flutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome football player Ian seems to be going nowhere fast and her witch puberty is making her life miserable.

When a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, the best friends realize that finding a boyfriend is the least of their worries. Soon Adam and Christy will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before, and will again.

Cover designed by Phatpuppy Art (photograph by www.gingerleeoriginals.com).

So what do you all think? You all know how fond I am of Rhiannon already and this will be her first YA so there's obviously something awesome brewing in here! As for the cover, I'm a big fan of Phatpuppy Art covers and this one is fabulous as always!

---

Sign up for future cover reveals with Xpresso Book Tours!

- Deeper We Fall by Chelsea M. Cameron
- Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun
- Desolate City by Racquel Jones
-Timespell by Diana Paz   

---

Sneak Peak Mini Tour: Weather Witch

Shannon Delany's debut series (13 TO LIFE) has concluded and a new steampunk series called WEATHER WITCH (also with St. Martin's Press) launches June 25, 2013 and is already available for pre-order. Delany warns that this series is darker and grittier than 13 TO LIFE, although still YA and still with romantic elements and she's asked a small group of us to share her cover and Prologue AND provide a way YOU can win some things.

Weather Witch
Shannon Delany
Publication date: June 25th 2013
by St. Martin's Griffin

 

In a vastly different and darker Philadelphia of 1844, steam power has been repressed, war threatens from deep, dark waters, and one young lady of high social standing is expecting a surprise at her seventeenth birthday party–but certainly not the one she gets!

Jordan Astraea, who has lived out all of her life in Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhood, is preparing to celebrate her birthday with friends, family and all the extravagance they might muster. The young man who is most often her dashing companion, Rowen Burchette, has told her a surprise awaits her and her best friend, Catrina Hollindale, wouldn’t miss this night for all the world!

But storm clouds are gathering and threatening to do far more than dampen her party plans because someone in the Astraea household has committed the greatest of social sins by Harboring a Weather Witch.

 Prologue (Part TWO--read part one at Beneath the Cover)
Holgate, Pennsylvania
1839

The door groaned open, hinges protesting as a man not even a half decade Marion’s senior — perhaps all of twenty-two — stepped onto the flat rooftop, briefly admiring the view beyond them. “You can see clear across the lake and the valley from here, you know? On days such as this I imagine a decent spyglass might let you glimpse as far as the rooftops of German Towne and Philadelphia itself,” he said loudly enough Marion heard. “What a spectacular day!” He raised his arms above his head a moment like an athlete warming up for competition and then clapped his hands together.

He smiled. A conventionally handsome man with a good jawline and a strong chin, his golden hair never fell into his eyes and his shirt and trousers always remained clean no matter what activity dirtied him. He took a moment to tie on his apron. The apron was a stark contrast to his perfect shirt and pants.
Marion shuddered at the colorful stains marring its fabric. Here a dark brown smudge, there a spray of rust-colored drops, there still more marks of a red so deep it put the bricks of Philadelphia's finest to shame. It appeared the apron had rested in a puddle of whatever that stuff was, it was so prevalent. 

...To read more, go to Hope, Love, and Happy Endings on November 15th!

Cover Reveal + Giveaway

Shutdown
Heather Anastasiu
Series: Glitch, #3
Publication date: July 2nd 2013
by St. Martin's Griffin

Synopsis of Shutdown currently unavailable
Synopsis for Glitch:

In the Community, there is no more pain or war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.

When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.

As Zoe struggles to control her abilities and stay hidden, she meets other glitchers including Max, who can disguise his appearance, and Adrien, who has visions of the future. Both boys introduce Zoe to feelings that are entirely new. Together, this growing band of glitchers must find a way to free themselves from the controlling hands of the Community before they’re caught and deactivated, or worse.

In this action-packed debut, Glitch begins an exciting new young adult trilogy.

The Glitch series:

Glitch Book Trailer

Cover Reveal: Pheonix by Elizabeth Richards

Phoenix
Elizabeth Richards
Series: Black City, #2
Publication date: June 2013
by G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR

The much anticipated second book in the enthralling Black City series

Engaged to be married, Ash and Natalie are just starting to build a life together, when things in the United Sentry States go from bad to worse. Ash and Natalie find themselves at the center of the turmoil when dictator Purian Rose threatens Natalie’s life unless Ash votes in favor of Rose’s law—a law that will send Darklings and other dissenters to a deadly concentration camp known as the Tenth.

Ash can’t bring himself to trade Natalie’s life for those of millions of Darklings. The only way to save everyone is to escape Black City and find the Ora, a powerful weapon that could take down Purian Rose for good. But fleeing the city and finding this weapon is easier said than done, if it even exists, and becomes a quest that could tear Ash and Natalie apart, even pushing them into the arms of others.

Elizabeth's Website/ Goodreads/ Facebook/ Twitter

Elizabeth Richards is an award-winning journalist and debut author, who spent her early career writing for videogame publications such as CUBE, P2 and GamesTM,and now works as a website editor. Previously, she ran a successful lifestyle website aimed at teenage girls. She won the Jane Hayward Young Journalist of the Year award for her feature on girls in the games industry, and was named 'Editor's Choice' in the industry trade magazine, MCV.

So how do you all like this pretty? I love it! I go gaga for red on covers and this one is just beautiful and fierce! I haven't read Black City yet but I'm really excited to dive into it.

Grand Prize Giveaway

At Good Choice Reading, the official cover reveal host, you can go enter the grand prize giveaway where you could win:

-An ARC Copy of Phoenix (FIRST COPY TO GO OUT)

-A copy of Black City
- A Black City Swag
-A Phoenix Swag
-A Pre-order of Black City for a second winner

Click here to go and enter!

Let me know what you think of this fiery cover!

Aurora Sky Cover Reveal & Giveaway

Today I have a very pretty cover to show you for Nikki Jefford's new book. She's the author of Entangled that I read and reviewed on the blog recently, and I'm excited to find out what she's got for us in this new vampire slayer book. Have a look, read the opening scene, and enter to win a great prize pack!

Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter
Nikki Jefford
Series: Vol. 1, Transfusion
Publication date: November, 2012

Her blood is toxic to vampires.

If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it’s to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn’t hurt either.

Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Secret agents step in and save Aurora’s life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska.

Basically she’s a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job… by hand.

Aurora is alienating friends at school while attracting attention from the last person she wants noticing her – the dark prince of temptation himself: Fane Donado. And that can’t lead to anything good.

*This is a YA-Mature title for ages 16 and up.*

Aurora Sky book trailer

Excerpt

Opening scene

Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, vol. 1, Transfusion

     The fight broke out as I was passing the cafeteria. The expressions on passing students morphed from resigned boredom to anticipated glee. Aggression filled our eardrums. We surged forward—the sound like a rip-tide pulling us in.

     If I’d gone to fifth period I would have missed the smackdown altogether. Instead, I’d spent the last hour tucked behind the back aisles of the library with the juniors. My new friends were easy to get on with. They didn’t care about things like college and grades or extracurricular activities.

     Only one thing interested them. They liked boys who bit.

     My steps slowed as I heard the first antagonistic shout leave the cafeteria. I veered through the double doors and stalked behind the students who sprang forward for a closer look. The gymnasium-sized room was surrounded by windows, which did nothing to help North High’s freeze factor. By all accounts, I should have been shivering. I’d left the house in a pleated miniskirt—much to my mother’s horror—not even bothering to mask the white ghost flesh that were my legs.

     Every student in the area stopped what they were doing and gathered around the two boys whose taunts had turned to punching. The taller one got the shorter guy into a headlock and pounded his face.

     I didn’t recognize either student. They were just two more nameless hooligans going about the motions, which at the moment involved swinging fists.

     “Get him, Jason!” students cheered. “Harder. Knock that pansy to the ground.”

     A month earlier, I would have walked in the opposite direction instead of pushing my way closer until I was at the front of the horde encircling the boys. But that was before I’d been locked inside a room with a drooling, snarling lunatic and forced to kill him.

     “Stop!” the shorter boy yelled.

     “Don’t stop! Hit him, Jason! Harder!” the crowd screamed back. This was followed by an obliging smack against the smaller boy’s face.

     “Enough!” Shorty yelled.

     “You sure? You learn your lesson yet?”

     “Yeah, I’m sorry. You can stop. Stop already!”

     Jason pushed the boy forward and lifted his hands over his head in victory. His victim stumbled and nearly fell face first onto the squeaky cafeteria floor. The crowd began to disperse. I was planted to the ground, unable to move.
Something wasn’t right. A warning whispered up my spine.

     A look of murder settled deep within the beaten boy’s eye sockets. He staggered upright then walked to the nearest table. Shorty didn’t look dangerous. He was small and moved slowly. But to see his expression… it was unmistakable.

     He grabbed a fold-up chair and lifted it above his head as though it was no heavier than a textbook. Jason never saw him coming. The smaller boy approached silently from behind and slammed the chair over Jason’s head.

     I heard nothing. Sound ceased to exist. Blood sprayed the floor, landing in round droplets. It stained the ground inches from my black Mary Jane’s. I looked up and saw Fane Donado, dark as doom, staring at the blood with an expression of enrapture. I should have been disgusted, but when I looked at the blood again I felt something stir inside me.

     Jason lay flat on the floor. He wasn’t moving.

     The collected student population was momentarily gagged. The boy started towards Jason, chair still in hand. He’d kill Jason. He’d kill him and no one would do a thing to stop him. But I could.

     Sex and violence. They were my new specialties, after all, though at the moment I was looking far more forward to the violence.

     I stepped in Shorty’s path and yanked the metal seat from his fingers. I threw it aside. Sound returned like the clash of cymbals when the chair clattered to the ground. Something snapped inside me. I grabbed the boy by the hair and kneed him in the gut. He grunted in pain. His agony filled my ears like a sweet melody. I turned and jabbed my elbow into his ribcage. My skirt lifted several inches as I twisted into the punch.

     The boy howled. He couldn’t manage to fight back. He was too busy shielding himself from my blows. I pulled back a fist and socked him in the eye. Pain splintered across my knuckles, but Shorty was still standing so I aimed for the second eye. He couldn’t very well go back for the chair if both his eyes were out of commission.

     Suddenly I was falling backwards, being yanked from behind. I struggled and slapped at the hands that had latched onto my midriff.

     “That’s enough, young lady!”

     I went limp and allowed myself to be dragged out of the room by the arm and led directly to the principal’s office.

     The last thing I saw were the whites of Fane’s teeth as he grinned. A month earlier I wasn’t so much as a blip on that boy’s radar. Now he was everywhere, appearing at my worst moments, like Satan, witnessing my fall from grace.

     Fane should have been the last boy I’d crush on. He was trouble and he wasn’t going anywhere in life. Then again, neither was I.

     Not anymore.

     At the beginning of the school year I’d been counting down the months till graduation; starting college on the East Coast; new friends and freedom. But, no. The agents said I could never leave Alaska. I might as well have died in that car accident because I was trapped in hell—one complete with monsters. Now the only friends I had were groupies of the undead and the only boy I could think about might very well be a vampire.

     And if he was a vampire, I’d have to kill him.

As part of Aurora’s initiation as a vampire hunter, she’s thrown into a locked room with a rabid vampire. On a metal table inside is a choice of weapons. Which would you pick if you were in her shoes and why: Shotgun, ax, hunting knife, or the wooden stake?

Nikki's Website / Goodreads / Twitter

Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan who loves fictional bad boys and heroines who kick butt. She is the author of the Spellbound Trilogy and upcoming Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series. Nikki married Sebastien, the love of her life, while working as a teaching assistant in France. They now reside in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands, 70 miles northeast of Forks, Washington.

Timeless Cover Reveal + Giveaway

I'm excited to be part of the Timeless cover reveal as I've gotten to know Michelle over my blogging "career" and she was actually my first review request where I ended up loving the book - Remembrance. This is the third and final part of the Transcend Time Saga.

Timeless
Michelle Madow
Publication date: November 20th 2012
by Dreamscape Publishing

 

The final novel in the Transcend Time Saga.

To make things right, they must go back to when it all began ...

The Transcend Time Saga.:

 Read my review of Remembrance here!

 If you haven’t started the Transcend Time Saga yet, the e-version of Remembrance is only $2.99 and can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.

Michelle's Blog / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

 Michelle Madow was inspired to write Remembrance after seeing Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video while a junior at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The song and video gave her the idea about a high school girl reincarnated from Regency Era, England. She handed in the first chapter as a homework assignment for class, and when her teacher and classmates wanted her to continue writing, she decided to go for it. By the end of the school year, her first novel was completed! Along with the Transcend Time Saga, Michelle Madow has written two other young adult novels, both which will be developed into series’.

Michelle Madow graduated from the Park School of Baltimore in 2005, where she always took two English classes each semester. She graduated from Rollins College in 2010, cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. At Rollins she was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and a member of the International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta. She received the Charles Hyde Pratt Award for Excellence in Creative Writing in 2010. Michelle lives in Florida, where she is hard at work writing more novels for young adults. She is represented by literary agent Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency.

Cover Reveal: Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Nobody

Nobody
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: Standalone
Release date: January 22nd 2013
by Egmont USA

 

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can’t make the hit. It’s as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are—because no one else ever notices them.

FINALLY! You can finally see this fantastic cover! I teased you in two of my posts about it - one of them is a giveaway for an ARC of this pretty - and now here it is! I'm so excited to finally be able to show you. And now you even know what it's about! Win! You have to let me know what you think, lovelies!

Don't go yet!

Read an excerpt on Chapter 1 and enter to win an ARC of Nobody 

along with four other Jennifer Lynn Barnes book!

Click here!

Cover Reveal: Doomed by Tracy Deebs

Doomed
Tracy Deebs
Release date: January 8th, 2013
by Bloomsbury Walker

 

Beat the game. Save the world.

Pandora’s just your average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father, her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.

Make sure to check out Mundie Moms for an excerpt and your chance to win a copy! 

Coming from a big dystopian fan, call me intrigued! This sounds so exciting and the cover is awesome! I love the bright colors and futuristic/gaming look!

Let me know what you think!

Cover Reveal x 6

Pretty Girl-13

Liz Coley

Release date:March 19th 2013 

by Katherine Tegen Books

 

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scout camping trip.

Now she’s returned home…only to find that it’s three years later and she’s sixteen—or at least that’s what everyone tells her.

What happened to the last three years of her life?

Angie herself doesn’t know.

But there are people who do—people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren’t locked inside her mind.

With a tremendous amount of courage and support from unexpected friends, Angie embarks on a journey into the darkest corners of her mind. As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: when you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the people responsible, or is there another way to feel whole again?

Liz Coley’s alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing—and ultimately empowering—page turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love.

This Is Not a Drill

Beck McDowell  

Release date: October 2012

by Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin)

 

Two teens try to save a class of first-graders from a gun-wielding soldier suffering from PTSD

When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the psychotic gunman threatening them--a task made even more difficult by their recent break-up. Brian Stutts, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, uses deadly force when he's denied access to his son because of a custody battle. The children's fate is in the hands of the two teens, each recovering from great loss, who now must reestablish trust in a relationship damaged by betrayal. Told through Emery and Jake's alternating viewpoints, this gripping novel features characters teens will identify with and explores the often-hidden damages of war.

The Violet Fox

Clare C. Marshall

Series: The Violet Fox #1

Release date: October 13th 2012

by Faery Ink Press

 

Run.
That’s what instinct told me.
But in order to save the secrets of my people
and to protect my brother
I have to become the enemy.

Soulbroken

Heather Brewer

Legacy of Tril #2

Release date: March 26th 2013

by DIAL

 

Sometimes you have to break the rules to discover the truth.

In this follow up to Legacy of Tril: Soulbound, Kaya has learned that she is Soulbound to Darius, the Barron she secretly trained with at Shadow Academy. But he’s been sent away, leaving Kaya with questions about how he could be Soulbound to her and another Healer. Determined to find answers and prove herself worthy of fighting in the war against King Darrek and the Graplars, Kaya sneaks away, encountering a mysterious Barron named Gage in her travels. But Darius has shocking information about Gage—information that changes everything Kaya thought she knew about what it means to be Bound.

The Legacy of Tril series so far:

 Pretty Sly

Elisa Ludwig

Series: Pretty Crooked, #2

Release date: March 12th 2013 

by Katherine Tegen Books 

 

Fifteen-year-old Willa takes to the road with Aidan in a stolen car after her artist mother disappears, heading for the Santa Barbara, California, hotel from which her mother sent an email, but soon they are the targets of a nationwide manhunt.

The Pretty Crooked series so far:

The Spindlers

Lauren Oliver

Release date: October 2nd 2012

by HarperCollins

 

Looking across the breakfast table one morning, twelve-year-old Liza feels dread wash over her. Although her younger brother, Patrick, appears the same, Liza knows that he is actually quite different. She is certain that the spindlers-evil, spiderlike beings-came during the night and stole his soul. And Liza is also certain that she is the only one who can rescue him.

Armed with little more than her wits and a huge talking rat for a guide, Liza descends into the dark and ominous underground to save Patrick's soul. Her quest is far from easy, and the road to the spindlers' nests is riddled with danger. She must brave tree snakes, the Court of Stones, and shape-shifting serpents before facing her greatest challenge in the spindlers' lair, where more than just Patrick's soul is at stake.

Instead of spamming your Facebooks with all the new covers I had to show you I decided to do up a post! Let me know what you think of all these new pretties!