{Guest Post} Chaos @coneilYA

My name is Maggie Raynard. After sixteen years being just plain me, suddenly I can kill people when I lose my temper. Turns out I'm a semi-god, descended from Aphrodite. Sounds cool in theory, but when I accidentally put my ex-boyfriend in a coma, things go downhill pretty fast.

Now some new guy named Mac Finnegan has made it his mission in life to continually piss me off. I'm stuck learning how to use my new powers while also dealing with regular high school problems, and with this---annoying and super-hot---guy all up in my business, I'm about to flip out.

But it gets worse. I just learned there's this council for semis that wants me dead. They think I'm bad to the bone and when my ex suddenly dies, it's like everyone is determined to take me out. Mac might turn out to be my only salvation, but he's got secrets of his own---that may just kill us both.

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Exclusive Excerpt

I was done with guys.

Not in that fake, I-say-that-but-deep-down-I-really-want-a-boyfriend kind of way, but in, like, the seriously-I'd-rather-eat-maggoty-cheese kind of way. No relationships. Not for me. Not now and maybe not ever. Who I am…what I am, and what I’m capable of? Everyone’s better off this way.

"I have to stop at my locker real quick," I said, veering to the right and cutting through the crush of kids heading straight like wildebeests to a watering hole. Libby followed and then stood by me as I fiddled with the lock.

"What's that?" She pointed to a white piece of paper sticking out half an inch from one of the slots in the olive metal door.

I tugged the padlock open and flicked the catch with my thumb. "Dunno." Maybe Bink had left me another note. Bink was my neighbor, bud, and—most days—my ride home. Last time I’d found a note in my locker, it was when his cell phone died and he needed to bail early. I seriously hoped this wasn’t a repeat performance.

I mentally ran down the list of people I could bug for a ride and came up empty. Libby always had to stay after for some activity or another, and I only really had two other people I could call "friends" and neither lived near me. I wrinkled my nose in anticipation of the dirty-sneakers-meets-day-old-bologna smell of a bus filled with kids who'd had last-period gym and opted not to change clothes. 

With a sigh, I pulled open the door and the white rectangle floated to the floor.

Libby bent to grab it and read it out loud. "'Dear Sad and Lonely…'" She trailed off and went quiet 

for a few seconds until her peachy complexion went hot pink, and then she gasped. "Oh my God. 

Holy… Oh, Mags, you are so not going to like this."

I snatched the paper from her, trying to ward off the growing pit in my gut.

Dear Sad and Lonely,

Since I can almost guarantee She is about to give you some seriously shite advice like she does every week, let me be the voice of reason. Your boyfriend is just like most high school guys. Cut him some slack and, even better, why not offer to learn how to play some of the games he likes? He'd probably appreciate the effort and might even take you somewhere nice after. If that doesn't work, sit him down and let him know how you're feeling so he can tell you what's going on with him. Could be that constantly calling the things he likes stupid isn't the best way to get what you want in this situation, yeah? In any case, don't let the ramblings of some bitter emo chick who's probably never had a boyfriend ruin your relationship.

Hope it helps,

He

The shock was too thick to let the anger in right away, but as stunned as I was, I knew exactly who was behind this. There was only one person in the whole school who would use the word “shite.”

Mac Finnegan.

Opinionated, annoying, hot—did I mention annoying?—Mac Finnegan, who had barely given me the time of day since he'd come to Crestwood High a couple months ago. Mac Finnegan, who thought he was soooo cool with his Irish accent and his mocking smile. Mac Finnegan, who inexplicably made me want to lick him like an ice cream cone and then immediately rinse my mouth out with acid.

How had he discovered my secret? Only Bink and Libby knew I was the girl behind “That's What She Said,” and I would have bet everything I owned that neither of them would have ratted me out.

Didn’t matter, though. One way or another, he knew. Even worse, he'd chosen to taunt me with it. Bitter emo chick who’s probably never had a boyfriend, indeed. I had a boyfriend once and it hadn’t ended well for either of us. I was in no rush to repeat the experience. Besides, what did this Irish asshat care?

Anger tightened my chest. I could feel the power rising in me, clawing to get out, roaring to be heard. The hair on my arms stood on end as I tried to breathe through it, to let the fury dissipate and flow out of my pores in harmless pings of energy, but it was no use. I pressed a hand to my locker and opened up the tiniest of escape valves, the spout of the teakettle, whistling off a stream of steam. The cheap metal instantly heated against my skin, the door buckling and warping on the spot just beneath my fingertips.

"Uh, Mags—" Libby whispered urgently, but a male voice cut her off.

"How's it going there, Libby? Maggie."

I turned around, still trying to catch my breath, and there he was, strolling by, a grin splitting his sinfully beautiful face.

Mac Finnegan, who had decided that being the new kid wasn't bad enough, so he had to actively go out of his way to make enemies. Mac Finnegan, who wanted to turn my world upside down rather than minding his own business. Mac Finnegan, who didn't know the meaning of live and let live.

Mac Finnegan, who clearly had no idea who he was fucking with.

 

About Christine:

Christine O’Neil is one half of the happiest couple in the world. She and her handsome hubby currently reside in Pennsylvania with a four-pack of teenage boys and their two dogs, Gimli and Pug. If she gets time off from her duties as maid, chef, chauffeur, or therapist, she can be found reading just about anything she can get her hands on, from Young Adult novels to books on poker theory. She doesn’t like root beer, clowns or bugs (except ladybugs, on account of their cute outfits), but lurrves chocolate, going to the movies, the New York Giants and playing Texas Hold ‘Em. Writing is her passion, but if she had to pick another occupation, she would be a pirate…or, like, a ninja maybe. She loves writing fun and adventure-filled romance stories, but also hopes to one day publish something her dad can read without wanting to dig his eyes out with rusty spoons. Christine loves to hear from readers, so please feel free to get in touch with her via the Contact Page. Christine also writes adult romance under the name Christine Bell.

Website/Twitter/ Goodreads


Follow the Tour

Tour Schedule:

Week 1

9/2/2013- Crossroad Reviews- Guest Post

9/3/2013- The Book Belles- Review

9/4/2013- Manga Maniac Cafe- Interview

9/5/2013- A Backwards Story- Guest Post

9/6/2013- Coffee, Books and Me- Interview

Week 2

9/9/2013- Books Are Magic- Review

9/10/2013- K-Books- Guest Post

9/11/2013- Curling Up With A Good Book- Review

9/12/2013- Fantasy Book Addict- Interview

9/13/2013- Ticket to Anywhere          - Review

  

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Guest Post! 

Thanks for having me today to celebrate the release of Chaos! 
I thought I could talk a little about what makes me fall in love with a fictional character. Stick around until the end and tell me what you think, because I’m doing an awesome contest too!

 

So when I think of all the things that make me fall in love with a book, regardless of genre, it’s the characters. If I fall in love with the characters, nothing else matters. I’ll follow them down a mine shaft, or to another planet or to Regency era London, or to a dystopian future. Because I’m invested. I care about them and their story. I think the best authors make us do that through voice. I’m a sucker for humor, but if I really think on it, that’sjust a small piece of it. More important? Things that make them relatable. Do they have a little stutter when they get stressed out? Will they only eat if none of their food touches on the plate? Do they have a weird ritual they do before they leave for school every morning, like jumping off the front step and hitting the wind chimes with their fingertips? People are weird. We do weird stuff all the time. If characters aren’t a little weird too, readers can’t relate.

 

Another thing I think that makes me love a character is if they are vulnerable and flawed in some way. If not, it’s hard toconnect. Readers want to see themselves on the page, and know that their hero or heroine has been through strife, is a wide open nerve for the author to poke and prod. Sounds sadistic, right? But without it, who cares. I mean, that’s the investment, right? Without falling into a crevice due to hiking-hubris, there IS no sawing off of the proverbial arm. And without the sawing off of the proverbial arm, where is the “HELL YEAH!” The fist pump along with that good, juicy feeling payoff of seeing someoneclimb out of that hole, overcoming the odds? Where’s our Rocky or our Big Mike from the Blind Side? In order to celebrate the victory, we have to witness the suffering too, and that requires our protagonist to be vulnerable.

 

This holds true in all stories, but for paranormal tales even more because they need to have both emotional AND physical vulnerability in order for readers to really connect. If they are COMPLETELY immortal, or had no physical “kryptonite” so to speak, the nervous tension of “Will he make it this time?” or “How will she get out of THIS one?” would be gone. Whatwould happen if Spider Man didn’t love Gwen (or Uncle Ben orMary Jane, depending on which version)? What would the super-villains use to manipulate him? What if Superman’s powers weren’t drained by kryptonite? What if the Hulk COULD control his anger? BORing. When I was writing Maggie and Mac for Chaos, I knew that not only had to beflawed, vulnerable and wide open for a world of hurt, they also had to be a that way for each other. Mac is one of the strongest semi-gods in the world, but his care for Maggie makes him vulnerable, and vice versa. Otherwise, the story doesn’t work.

 

I’m weird. And I’m vulnerable. And I’m flawed. So, like, whenever I draw a picture or doodle of something like a snowman, I always draw two so that when I close the notebook, there’s not just the one left there all lonely. Frigging weird, right?  And my kryptonite would be maggots. Show me maggots and I will tell you ANYTHING you want to know. As for flaws, I have a ton. I think my least favorite one is that I love to argue. Seriously, even if I don’t believe what I’m arguing about, I STILL have the intense urge to debate about it. It’s not cute, y’all.

 

So what about you, blog readers? What makes you weird? Flawed? Vulnerable? (Asking that last one for a friend. Not going to use this information to take over the human race one by one and use your planet as a breeding ground my race of super-aliens *shity eyes*).

{Review + Giveaway} The Girl of Fire and Thorns @RaeCarson @EpicReads

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one. 

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will. 

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.  Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.  Most of the chosen do

About the Author

Rae Carson is the author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns and The Crown of Embers. Locus, the premier magazine for science fiction and fantasy, proclaimed, "Carson joins the ranks of writers like Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, and Tamora Pierce as one of YA's best writers of high fantasy." The Girl of Fire and Thorns was a finalist for the Morris YA Debut Award, and one of ALA's Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. Rae Carson has dabbled in many things, from teaching to corporate sales to customer service, before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio. You can follow her on Twitter.

I had purchased this book two years ago and completely forgot about it. Then book two came out at discount so I stabbed that one to. When I received book three for review and didn't get to it time it sucked. But then epic reads had the author on and I decided it was time to read it. And OMG! I wish I would have gotten to this sooner. This book was so good. But here are some steps if you are going to read it.

1. Have something sweet on hand for the beginning as they are consistently talking about food.

2. DO NOT read this book on an empty stomach! IT WILL NOT end well!

This book had so many twists and turns and at first I thought it was silly. A girl with a jewel in her belly. Reminded me of those wish trolls lol. But at the middle you forget and my the end you don know why you conspired the two. This was such a beautiful book with amazing characters. And two very big OMG MOMENTS!!! For those who haven't read this series. Make sure you have all three books on hand!
"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

Comment below to win a copy of book two!   The Crown of Embers from amazon which is sale right now for $1.99!!!

{Hop} September is for Sequels

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINKY LIST

Ok for this one I thought I would do something VERY nice!!  I have two copies of most of the House of Night Books!  So I thought I would give the extras away!  So enter to win the currently released books and maybe ill even giveaway the newest one that isn't even out yet! 

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{Review} The 5th Wave @RickYancey

This review was borrowed from Goodreads. 
"...bastardized sci-fi for the Twilight crowd..."

Well this is awkward. Everything about The 5th Wave - an award winning male young adult author, a high octane alien invasion plot, the comparisons to Ender’s Game and The Passage - made it seem like it’d exactly my kind of book. But now that I’ve finished, I’m just so pissed with the whole thing I have nothing nice to say and really just want to punch something, and in fact, I dislike The 5th Wave so much I’ve somehow written not one butthree angry rants - yeah, be warned, this is going to be brutal(ly honest).

Rant Number 1: The Alien Invasion is Beyond Disappointing
The 5th Wave is not Ender’s Game. The 5th Wave is not The Passage. The 5th Wave shouldn’t even qualify as science fiction unless it’s being mentioned in the same breath as Jennifer Armentrout’s Lux series (even Stephenie Meyer’s The Host is too good for this comparison). 

Why? Because there’s just nothing here but a collection of alien invasion tropes leading to an actual plot that’s all over the place, part cringe worthy young adult ‘romance’ (which I never would have expected from a male author... but that’s the topic of the next rant), part bizarre military training sequence (hence the unfounded comparisons to Ender’s Game... see rant number three), all leading to a nonsensical alien conspiracy by a group of ‘Others’, who, if they’d really been studying us and planning our demise for as long as they claim, rather than the harebrained scheme they’ve concocted to ‘break’ humanity, should’ve just taken their cues from this awesome game:



In fact, I’ve seen my share of memorable alien invasion plots.Independence Day. Animorphs. V. Between Falling Skies, War of the Worlds, and Invasion America, Steven Spielberg has even done it three times. So at this point, count me unsurprised by the basic premise of The 5th Wave, but even so I still wasn’t prepared for how derivative this book actually is *cough*infestation with obvious red herring*cough*.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly looking for new and original - I just wanted something that, I don’t know, isn’t a clichefest? Any serious, well done treatment would have sufficed... and yet, I’m wracking my head trying to think of anything else remotely this bad... and I just can’t. There just isn’t anything interesting about The 5th Wave that made me want to invest in the story - it’s great that Rick Yancey seems to have latched on to Stephen Hawking’s idea that if aliens ever visited, we’d all be like the Native Americans during the colonial era, but the Waves themselves are just so generic compared to every other (imagined) alien attack that Cassie Sullivan’s descriptions of the ‘Other’’s invasion come across more like the melodramatic whining of someone too clueless and naive to appreciate the power of an alien invasion than the gritty recollections of a hardened survivor who’s experienced the horrors of the attacks firsthand. 

Besides, there are only so many ways of describing how to squash a bug. Orbital bombardment. Biological warfare. A Fifth Column. Not only is The 5th Wave unoriginal, but it’s excessive. I got it, humanity’s beaten, there’s really no need for all of Cassie’s theatrics. Sure, she can pretend to be such a big expert on alien invasions, tell me how unprepared we are, how many people the ‘Others’ have killed, but she’s so keen on sounding like the big expert she thinks she is she ends up being just so repetitive and ridiculously genre unsavvy. They can kill us? Yeah I know... I've seen them blow up the White House. Seriously, mope around too much bitching about it like she does, and it becomes a case of been there, done that, got boring, seriously stop telling me how terrible it is when I can imagine hundreds of worse scenarios. Face huggers anyone?

Anyway, Earth being invaded by hostile, advanced aliens isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. But not only is The 5th Wave completely derivative of the many, many alien invasion plots of years past, it just has a terrible protagonist in Cassie Sullivan who forcefully shoves the same old regurgitated crap down my throat in the most inane way possible. Ugh.

Rant Number 2: The ‘Romance’ is Beyond Terrible

"That’s my big problem. That’s it! Before the Arrival, guys like Evan Walker never looked twice at me, much less shot wild game for me and washed my hair. They never grabbed me by the back of the neck like the airbrushed model on his mother’s paperback, abs a-clenching, pecs a-popping. My eyes have never been looked deeply into, or my chin raised to bring my lips within an inch of theirs."

That, if you couldn’t tell, is an actual quote from the book. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as romantically challenged as The 5th Wave, and this is including Twilight here (did I just compare Twilight favorably to another book?!!). 

Basically, I really really REALLY didn’t like Cassie Sullivan as a character (again, and for completely different reasons than from rant number one). For one, I’d be seriously concerned for any girl who responds to an impending alien invasion like this: 

It’s the end of the world! OMG Ben Parish is hot! 

WTF? And as if that wasn’t enough, Ben Parish isn’t even the love interest. The real love interest is a poor guy named Evan Walker, who may or may not be one of them. Who, I’m not kidding, tries to kill Cassie before growing a conscience and falling in love with her. And Cassie, of course, is the girl who’s never been in a relationship before, so she immediately loses all sense of self preservation and melts into his warm brown eyes and dimple. What is this? The Host? Did Stephenie Meyer write this?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, even if I weren’t inwardly cringing every time Cassie and Evan appear together, Rick Yancey really should be banned from writing female points of view. This, again, is an actual Cassie quote:

Time for the angrily-storming-out-of-the-room part of the argument, while the guy folds his arms over his manly chest and pouts.

WTF? Should I believe what I think Yancey’s saying about what girls think of guys?

In fact, I would be laughing at how bad Cassie’s point of view is if I weren’t still smarting over the insipid alien invasion plot that made me want to fling my copy of the book across the room (not that I can, don’t want to pay for repairs to the drywall). Double ugh.

Rant Number 3: The Comparisons to the Sci-fi Classics are Completely Unfounded
The days when alien invasion plots could stand solely on the invasion ended right around the time of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds. Somebody, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo. Since then, alien invasions have been pushing the boundaries of speculative fiction by exploring the paranoia surrounding sleeper agents (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), adult authority and its limits (Ender’s Game), and discovering the truth in the face of a complex government cover-up (The X Files), but although The 5th Wave borrows elements from all of these other alien invasion plots, I can’t for the life of me point to one alien invasion theme that this book does well. Evan being a human-alien hybrid struggling to reconcile his alien soul with his humanity? Shallow even in comparison to The Host. The conspiracy surrounding the ‘Other’’s infiltration of the US military? So transparent I wouldn’t even call it a conspiracy. Ben’s military training to take out the infested? Is that a joke? They even killed (an expendable character named) Kenny! Cassie’s struggle to survive the Waves, eventually learning to become a tougher person? Ok, that one’s done well, I’ll admit, until she runs into Evan and becomes a quivering mess of a character. Then, yuck! 

Look, I’m not against borrowing plot elements from other sources. But when those elements mean something, when there’s a theme behind them, I don’t want to see a shallow treatment that does neither the source nor the adaptation any favors. And for The 5th Wave, that’s unfortunately the case. Triple ugh.

Basically, The 5th Wave is, in every way, an embarrassment to science fiction. Rick Yancey tried to work too many different concepts into this book, jumping all over the place, that the end result is not one of them is done well. I’m muy disappointed.

{Reveal} Through Glass @RebEthington

We are so excited to be able to bring to you the cover reveal for Rebecca Ethington’s THROUGH GLASS which releases in less than a month on September 20th, 2013.

Both the book’s cover and description are awesome and more than a little bit chilling and we cannot wait for its release.

If you’d like to know more about the author, Rebecca Ethington, be sure to check out her website, or any of the other places she hangs out online.

And if you can’t wait until September 20th for the release of THROUGH GLASS, the first book in her Imdalind series, KISS OF FIRE, is now available in eBook format for free at AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE and for the KOBO.

We love the cover, but what do you think?

COMING SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2013

About THROUGH GLASS

Everyone remembers the day the sky went black. They remember the screams as the blackness ate those who were out in the open, those who surrounded themselves by light, and those who made noise.

Everyone remembers the voice from the sky, the way food disappeared.

Everyone remembers the day the sky went black, and the sun was wiped from the sky.

At least that’s what I hope. I hope that there is an ‘everyone’ that will remember.

I hope that I am not alone.

Because I remember.

I remember, because it was the day I became alone.

It was the day the house went silent, and the birds stopped singing. It was the day when everyone disappeared, everyone except the boy, the only person I have seen in two years.

The boy I talk to through the glass.

GOODREADS

***

About Rebecca Ethington

Rebecca Ethington has been telling stories since she was small. First, with writing crude scripts, and then on stage with years of theatrical performances. The Imdalind Series is her first stint into the world of literary writing.

Rebecca is a mother to two, and wife to her best friend of 14 years. She was born and raised in the mountains of Salt Lake City, and hasn’t found the desire to leave yet. Her days are spent writing, running, and enjoying life with her amazing family.

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{Review & Giveaway} Tropic of Darkness @TonyRichardsdfw

Available on ebook, an original full-length supernatural thriller set in Havana, Cuba, from an acclaimed Bram Stoker Award-nominated author.Jack Gilliard is a man with a dark past, and he hasn’t been back to the United States for more than a decade. But when he washes up in Havana, Cuba, he finds himself being drawn into a business darker than he ever dared think. Ancient passions, ancient treacheries, an age-old curse, and the evils of his past are now consuming the present—and Jack is caught in the midst of it all. To survive, all he has to do is leave the country—a prospect much more difficult than anticipated. But the real question is: can Jack escape before the darkness claims him altogether?

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Biography

Tony Richards' novels have been published by HarperCollins, Tor, Headline, Dark Regions Press, and Pan Macmillan, with his latest book -- TROPIC OF DARKNESS -- due out in 2013 from Simon and Schuster. His debut work -- 'The Harvest Bride' -- made the shortlist for the HWA Award for Best First Novel, and in 2008 his collection 'Going Back' was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award. He has seen into print more than a hundred short stories, with his tales appearing in Asimov's, Hitchcock's, F&SF, Weird Tales, Cemetery Dance, and many top anthologies including Best New Horror. Widely traveled, he often uses places he has visited as settings for his work. His fiction includes the Raine's Landing dark fantasy adventures, a group of stories set in the imaginary town of Birchiam-on-Sea on the south coast of England, his Future Africa tales in Hitchcock's, and his Immortal Holmes series on Amazon Kindle.
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Last year I had started to expand on what I was reading.  And its books like this one that I am so happy that I decided to go ahead and do that! This is a deff must read and at $1.99 ebook why not pick it up!  Now as for the giveaway below it will be for a PRINT ARC that I was sent by the publisher!  

"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

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{Review + Giveaway + Guest Post} Somebody Up There Hates You @AlgonquinBooks

Chemo, radiation, a zillion surgeries, watching my mom age twenty years in twenty months: if that’s part of the Big Dude’s plan, then it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Somebody Up There Hates You.

SUTHY has landed me here in this hospice, where we—that’s me and Sylvie—are the only people under 30 in the whole place, sweartogod. But I’m not dead yet. I still need to keep things interesting. Sylvie, too. I mean, we’re kids, hospice-hostages or not. We freak out visitors; I get my uncle to sneak me out for one insane Halloween night. Stuff like that. And Sylvie wants to make things even more interesting. That girl’s got big plans.

Only Sylvie’s father is so nuclear-blasted by what’s happened to his little girl, he glows orange, I swear. That’s one scary man, and he’s not real fond of me. So we got a major family feud going on, right here in hospice. DO NOT CROSS line running down the middle of the hall, me on one side, her on the other. It’s crazy.

In the middle of all of this, really, there’s just me and Sylvie, a guy and a girl. And we want to live, in our way, by our own rules, in whatever time we’ve got. We will pack in some living before we go, trust me

BIOGRAPHY

Corporeality, Hollis Seamon's new collection of stories, published by Able Muse Press, will be available in January 2013.  Alan Davis has called this “. . . a wonderful collection of stories, dazzling and unsentimental, full of everyday tragedies, fairy-tale motifs, and rambunctious, life-affirming characters.” Hollis's young adult novel, Somebody Up There Hates You, will be published in September 2013 with Algonquin Books.

Hollis's mystery novel, Flesh, was published by Memento Mori Mysteries of Avocet Press in 2005. Hollis's book of short stories, Body Work, was published by Spring Harbor Press in 2000. A Publishers Weekly review (April 10, 2000) described the book: “The lives of women and girls are unconventionally and richly explored in Body Work by Hollis Seamon. With precise prose alternately chatty and subtly resonant, Seamon delves into female adolescence, body issues, sexuality, relationships between mothers and daughters, and other themes, often keenly revealing the magical, uncanny and symbolic meanings in everyday life.” Douglas Glover called the book, “A sexy, edgy collection of stories about women on the brink.”

Seamon's short stories have recently appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Fiction International,The Greensboro Review, The Nebraska Review, Persimmon Tree, and The Chicago Review.  Her work has been included in anthologies such as The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review (Bellevue Literary Press, 2008), Celestial Electric Set (Emrys Foundation, 2008), and The Strange History of Suzanne LaFleshe and Other Stories of Women and Fatness (The Feminist Press, 2003).  Her short story “Death is the New Sleep” won the 2009 Al Blanchard Award for Short Crime Fiction and was included in Quarry: Crime Stories by New England Writiers (Level Best Books, 2010).  A recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, Hollis is Professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany NY and teaches for the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing Program.  She lives in Kinderhook NY.

When I received this book I was scared!  I have read books about death and dying and I always end up crying my eyes out. Well with this one. Seamon creates a wonderful story about a teen whom is dying is cancer. But within these pages you will find humor, laughter, and more!  This book is a powerful story about a boy whom doesn't want to give up and will never surrender. I really loved Sylvie but I wish we could have gotten a little more of her. I have heard that this one is like The Fault In Our Stars. Which is not a bad thing. This is deff one book to grab. 

"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

Hollis Seamon On Writing Somebody Up There Hates You

Somebody Up There Hates You began many years ago when my four-year- old son started going to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, to the hospital known then as “Babies,” for multiple surgeries and other treatments. Between 1976 and 1990, he was a “repeat offender.” That’s what the kids who returned for frequent hospitalizations called themselves. These kids often met up during coincidental visits to Babies, instantly falling back into hospital friendship mode. When well enough, they played video games in the playroom, reluctantly attended school sessions in the mornings, and raced the ancient wooden wheelchairs through the corridors. They learned to use their IV poles as scooters, pushing off with one foot and then putting both feet on the bottom of the pole and sailing down the halls, bags of IV fluids waving above them. That was the fun side of being in Babies. The other side was pain, suffering, and a constant longing for home. My son always did get to go home, and we celebrated every time. But some of those kids never left the hospital. And in many ways, I’ve come to realize, Babies has never left me.
The patients at Babies who made the biggest impression on me were the teenagers, at once heartbreaking and hilarious. No matter how ill, how miserably uncomfortable, how very real the mortal danger, those kids remained, stubbornly and defiantly, teenagers: rebellious; foul-mouthed; irreverent; pains-in-the-ass to nurses, doctors, and parents alike—and wonderfully funny. Often, the teenagers on our floor would gather at the nurses’ station late at night, talking, laughing, and flirting. I would lie on the cot beside my son’s bed and listen. Their voices spun stories through those long, sleep-deprived nights, and when sleep did come, their voices wove themselves into my dreams.

That’s where Richie, the seventeen-year-old narrator of Somebody Up There Hates You, came from. He represents all of those smart, mouthy, indomitable, fiercely alive kids. Sylvie, the girl he falls in love with, came from there, too. Richie and Sylvie are in hospice; they are dying. But they are still alive, growing up in that intense hospital space where time flows at a different pace and every moment is heightened. Things happen, to them and around them, every day. As Richie says, “Dying is pretty boring, if you get right down to it. It’s the living here that’s actually interesting, a whole lot more than I ever would have imagined.”
Richie’s right: hospitals are bursting with stories. Walk down any corridor and glance, only briefly, for hospital etiquette requires that you never stare, into the patients’ rooms. Listen for a minute: in every room, a drama is occurring. Fights and struggles, triumphs and devastating losses, in every single room, every single day. Everyone there is a character, and every event becomes part of a plot. Nothing is certain; everything seems dependent on some arbitrary roll of some strangely loaded dice. Everyone is a gambler, and the stakes are sky high. What a training ground for fiction writers.
One other thing, more recent, helped create Somebody Up There Hates You. In 2005, my beloved brother-in-law Matt was admitted to a hospice unit in a small hospital in Hudson, New York. In the corridor there, beside the elevator, was a harpist. The effect of stepping into that place and encountering harp music was, well, just totally weird. That harpist appears on the very first page of the novel. That’s also where my original “SUTHY Syndrome” story began, with Richie describing the weirdness of the harpist and then telling us how he and Sylvie lit up their hospice on the night before Halloween. After that story was published in the Bellevue Literary Review in 2009, I thought I’d heard the last from Richie.
Nope. Richie kept right on talking. Clearly, he had much, much more to say and to do.
So that story grew into this novel. The echoes of all those kids’ voices somehow came together, mixing with the notes of a harp. This composition played in my ears for years and then emerged as Somebody Up There Hates You, a book written to honor repeat offenders everywhere. 

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{Review & Giveaway} The Returned/Resurrection @JasonMott

Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were.

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

With spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

About Resurrection 

The people of Arcadia, Missouri are forever changed when their deceased loved ones suddenly start to return. An 8-year-old American boy (Landon Gimenez) wakes up alone in a rice paddy in a rural Chinese province with no idea how he got there. Details start to emerge when the boy, who calls himself Jacob, recalls that his hometown is Arcadia and an immigration agent, Martin Bellamy (Omar Epps), takes him there. The home he claims as his own is occupied by an elderly couple, Harold (Kurtwood Smith) and Lucille Garland (Frances Fisher), who lost their son Jacob more than 30 years ago.  While they look different, young Jacob recognizes them as his parents. Those closest to the family try to unravel this impossible mystery, including Sheriff Fred Garland (Matt Craven) whose wife Barbara drowned 30 years ago trying to save Jacob. But this boy who claims to be the deceased Jacob knows secrets about his own death that no one else knows—secrets that Fred’s daughter Gail (Devin Kelly) will begin to investigate and discover to be true. 

Resurrection stars Omar Epps (House) as Martin Bellamy, Matt Craven (Crimson Tide, A Few Good Men) as Fred, Devin Kelley (Chernobyl Diaries, The Chicago Code) as Gail, Frances Fisher (Titanic) as Lucille, Kurtwood Smith (That 70s Show) as Harold, Sam Hazeldine (The Raven) as Abel, Samaire Armstrong (Entourage, The O.C.) as Elaine, Nicholas Gonzalez (Off the Map) as Connor, Mark Hildreth (Dragon Ball Z) as Tom and Landon Gimenez as Jacob.

Written by Aaron Zelman (Damages, The Killing), Resurrection is executive produced by Aaron Zelman, JoAnn Alfano, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Jon Liebman, Brillstein Entertainment and Plan B. The pilot was directed by Charles McDougall. Resurrection is produced by ABC Studios.

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Biography

Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction has appeared in various journals such as Prick of the Spindle, The Thomas Wolfe Review, The Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets, Measure and Chautauqua. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize award.

He is the author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and "...hide behind me..." The Returned is his first novel.

The Returned has also been optioned by Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, in association with Brillstein Entertainment and ABC. The pilot is currently being filmed.

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Ok this one I am BEYOND WORDS!!  When going to write this review I was over joyed to find out that this was becoming a tv series coming this fall to ABC!  If you havent read this book you need to!
What happens when those you have loved come back as if a day hasnt passed!  How would you deal with this?! I know that I dont think I would be able to handle this!  But being able to have a second chance to spend time with those you love I could only think that I wouldnt let that time end. This is a heart griping, heart wrenching story of when those we love come back from the dead!

"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

Check out the trailer for this upcoming book to tv series! 

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{Review & Giveaway} Skulk @rosiejbest @StrangeChem

When Meg witnesses the dying moments of a shapeshifting fox and is given a beautiful and powerful stone, her life changes forever. She is plunged into the dark world of the Skulk, a group of shapeshifting foxes.  As she learns about the other groups of shapeshifters that lurk around London – the Rabble, the Horde, the Cluster and the Conspiracy – she becomes aware of a deadly threat against all the shapeshifters. They must put aside all their enmity and hostility and fight together to defeat it.

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Wonderful book!! New fresh take on shifters. Heard that this was going to be a 2 book series. So hopefully we don't have to wait to long for it. Ate this up in two days and so can't wait to read more!! Wonderful debut ya novel!!





"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

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