By: aquafortis,
on 5/6/2013
Reader Gut Reaction: The Diviners is a tome. There: I said it. I have to admit that my first reaction was to be a little gobsmacked at the size of the hardback library edition. But once I started reading, I got so absorbed in this supernatural... Read the rest of this post
By: aquafortis,
on 4/15/2013
Reader Gut Reaction: Janelle Tenner was supposed to be dead. For a few minutes, she WAS. And then…she wasn't. And her life since then is irrevocably different. Before: beach lifeguard, academic powerhouse, popular hot boyfriend, not much to worry... Read the rest of this post
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By: Diana Hurwitz,
on 4/12/2013
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By: Robin,
on 3/29/2013
We love listening to Chris Crutcher. He always has the most interesting things to say. Luckily his new novel, PERIOD 8, is full of things to talk about!
Watch Chris Crutcher discuss the truth and when to tell it, what it means to live a good life, and PERIOD 8. Make sure you stick around until the end for a special message to teachers and librarians!
Download the PERIOD 8 discussion guide and get talking . . .
By: Julie,
on 2/26/2013
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Title: What’s Left of Me Author: Kat Zhang |
May Contain Spoilers
From Amazon:
I should not exist. But I do.
Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t. . . .
For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable—hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.
Review:
Wow, wow, wow! This is one of the most original YA books I’ve read in a long time. The narrative is tense and compelling, and the setting, which is revealed in small, teasing snippets, is thought-provoking. I admit that when I first picked this up, I was skeptical about it holding my interest. Eva, the narrator, is the less dominate soul, and she shares her body with Addie. Addie has complete control of their body, and Eva, at first, just seems to be along for the ride. As they make two new friends, however, Eva is given the hope that someday she might have some control back over the limbs and voice she shares with Addie. Once the government discovers that Eva still exists, however, she and Addie are imprisoned in a medical facility where the evil Mr Conivent promises their parents that Addie will be “cured.” Using their ill brother’s medical treatments as the bait to take custody of the girls, Eva and Addie discover a sinister plot to cut one of the forbidden souls from the hybrids the scientists are experimenting on.
Addie and Eva are deviants in their society. Everyone is born with two souls, and by the age of ten, most of the lesser souls have “settled,” leaving only the dominant soul behind. Eva and Addie never settled, but after being shuttled from doctor to doctor, they have learned to keep Eva’s continued existence at secret. They pretend that they have settled because they realize how important it is to be considered “normal.” They are tired of doctors, tests, and examinations, and they are afraid of what will happen if it’s discovered that Eva’s soul still very much entwined with Addie’s.
When Addie and Eva form an uneasy friendship with Hally, their secret is exposed, and they are confined to Nornand, a government institution. They discover the terrible truth about the fate of the children who they have been told have gone home. With their lives on the line, they desperately seek a way to escape the institution.
I liked both Addie and Eva. They are scared to death, but they take frightening risks to find a way to freedom, not just for themselves, but for all of the hybrids at Nornand. In order to learn more about what’s going on, they do some things that had my heart pounding. Sneaking around and learning the secrets of Nornand, when it’s obvious that the doctors and nurses, and later, the review board, don’t care about their health, safety, or well-being, had me on the edge of my seat. I hated having to put the book down to go to work!
I’m going to keep this review short because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I loved the main protagonists and the the secondary characters, and I completely bought into the plot. I found What’s Left of Me to be a suspenseful, exciting read. This book lived up to, and even exceeded, all of my expectations. I enjoyed the time I spent with Addie, Eva, Hally, and Devon, and hope to spend more time with them in the future.
Grade: B+/A-
Review copy obtained from my local library
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By: alethea aka frootjoos,
on 2/27/2013
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Visit www.kateellison.com and follow the author on Facebook.
By: Julie,
on 3/1/2013
  |
Title: Hysteria Author: Megan Miranda |
May Contain Spoilers
From Amazon:
Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can’t remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn’t charged. But Mallory still feels Brian’s presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past. But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda’s masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.
Review:
Okay, this was a different read for me. Mallory killed her boyfriend one rainy night during the summer, after he broke into her house. She isn’t charged because it was ruled to be in self-defense, but Mallory isn’t sure. She can’t remember what happened that scary, rainy night, and she’s not sure that she wants to. Unable to sleep without the aid of sleeping pills, she suffers from the emotional trauma that she can’t put behind her. She feels a dark, heavy presence when she’s alone, and she keeps hearing the ominous boom, boom, boom of Brian’s dying heartbeat. When her parents send her away to Monroe, the boarding school her dad went to, she doesn’t think things can get any worse. Boy, was she wrong.
Hysteria is a compelling, character driven story. There is a steady building of suspense, and you aren’t sure whether Mallory is completely nuts or just suffering from PTSD. Her escape mechanism when things get too intense for her is to run. Run as fast and as far away from whatever it is that’s making her uncomfortable. She runs a lot in this book. From herself, from her memories, from her classmates. But mostly she runs from the truth. What happened that awful night, and why can’t she remember?
I was bewildered at Mallory’s parents’ apparent abandonment. What the heck? Their daughter is going through the worst time in her life, and they ship her off to boarding school. Mallory can barely function because she is so consumed with what she did. It colors everything in her life, as it should. She killed someone, and she is being eaten mercilessly by remorse. What could she have done differently? Why did she do what she did? The flashbacks to that night when everything went wrong are intense and compelling, and kept me wondering how all of the pieces would fit together. After first I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked Mallory because she is so emotionally shattered that she comes off as uncaring and indifferent. As the story unfolds, though, it becomes more and more evident that she is suffering but she has no one to turn to for help. Her best friend back home isn’t responding to her emails or phone calls, and her parents are emotionally distant. What Mallory needed was a good shrink, but all she seemed to get was a slick lawyer. I didn’t get that. If her parents could afford to ship her off to boarding school, they could have provided her with counseling as well.
Whether or not you enjoy Hysteria will depend on whether or not you like Mallory. She is one messed up girl, and her coping methods are suspect at best. Weird things are happening to her, and instead of trying to seek help, she tries to deal with all of her problems by herself. The few times she reaches out to her parents are rebuffed. When events become too much for her to handle, the authority figures in her life don’t believe her because of her past. Mallory irritated at times, but I did come to like her, and I wanted her to find peace from her memories and her nightmares. The pacing is a little slow at times, but I found this a hard book to put down.
Grade: B/B+
Review copy provided by publisher
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By: Julie,
on 3/1/2013
Thanks to Walker Books, I have a copy of Megan Miranda’s Hysteria to give to one of you!
About the book:
Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can’t remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn’t charged. But Mallory still feels Brian’s presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others.
In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda’s masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.(
Ready for your chance to win a copy of Hysteria by Megan Miranda? Just will out the widget below. Earn extra entries for following. US mailing addresses only.
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By: Shelagh Watkins,
on 3/2/2013
New Libri Press announces publication of the second Street Stories suspense novel, Bend Me, Shape Me, by author Debra R. Borys, available in ebook with trade paperback to follow. Contact Stasa Fritz (above) with review or interview requests.
Bend Me, Shape Me is the second novel in the Street Stories suspense series and tells the story of Snow Ramirez, a bi-polar street kid about to turn 18. She’s convinced that psychiatrist Mordechai Levinson is responsible for one kid’s suicide, and may be targeting her brother Alley as his next victim. Once again, reporter Jo Sullivan finds herself the only person willing to listen to one of Chicago’s throwaway youth.
Snow Ramirez hasn’t trusted anyone in a very long time, not even herself. Memories of her childhood on Washington’s Yakama Reservation haunt her even on the streets of Chicago.
When her squat mate Blitz slits his own throat in front of her, she knows it’s time to convince someone to trust her instincts. Blitz may have been diagnosed bi-polar, like Snow herself, but no way would he have offed himself like that if the shrink he’d been seeing hadn’t bent his mind completely out of shape.
Normally she wouldn’t care. Who wasn’t crazy in one way or another in this messed up world? After all, she’d gotten out from under the doctor’s thumb weeks ago and it was too late for Blitz now, wasn’t it? Snow’s little brother Alley, though, there might still be time to save him. If only she can get reporter Jo Sullivan to believe her story before Snow loses her own mind.
EXCERPT:
Squatting with her arms tight around her legs and forehead pressed to her knees, Snow rocked on the balls of her feet. To the south, the hum of traffic along the Eisenhower Expressway. Nearer, beneath the dumpster, the scurry of rats looking for supper. That feeling in her center, the one she couldn’t describe except to say when she was a kid she thought it meant she was going to die, tightened her chest, filled her mouth, made it hard to breathe. “You must learn to trust,” the shrink had told her. “You must learn who to trust. Your brother is learning that, even if you can’t.”
AUTHOR BIO
Debra R. Borys is the author of the STREET STORIES suspense novels.The first book in the series, Painted Black, was published by New Libri Press in 2012. A freelance writer and editor, she spent four years volunteering with Emmaus Ministries and the Night Ministry in Chicago, and eight years doing similar work at Teen Feed, New Horizons and Street Links in Seattle. The STREET STORIES series reflects the reality of throw away youth striving to survive. Her publication credits include short fiction in Red Herring Mystery Magazine, Downstate Story and City Slab.
deb@debra-r-borys.com
www.debra-r-borys.com/
Praise for PAINTED BLACK
“Painted Black is about the young faces we see on the streets, covered in dirt, wearing worn out clothes, shrouded in looks of hate, pride, and fear…. There isn’t a part of this book you don’t feel, it reaches into your core…. There are many enjoyable books out there, but there aren’t many that make you feel, make you think, make you sit back and contemplate the uglier side of life we try so hard to ignore its existence. This was a very well written book on all accounts.”
—Darian Wilk, author of Love Unfinished and Reinventing Claire
“Painted Black has a Silence of the Lamb’s feeling about it…..there’s something dark and ominous going on here.…. Fiction can be a great vehicle for exposing the darker side of the human experience in ways that are both important and meaningful and I think that Painted Black fits into this category.”
—Quinn Barrett, Wise Bear Books All Things Digital Media interviewer
“Borys gives us a glimpse into the vagaries of street life for teens without wallowing in sentimentality or false compassion. The mystery here is not who did it, but how finding the truth will change the life of a street kid we’ve come to care about.”
—Latham Shinder, author of The Graffiti Sculptor and professional memoir ghostwriter
New Libri Press | http://www.NewLibri.com
By: Julie,
on 3/14/2013
Please welcome Tessa Bailey to the virtual offices today. She is celebrating the release of Protecting What’s His, the first in her Line of Duty series. After we chat with Tessa, you can enter for your chance to win a copy of Protecting What’s His!
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.
[Tessa Bailey] Hot-and-bothered stay-at-home-mom turned writer, Brooklynite, foodie and hopeless romantic.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about Protecting What’s His?
[Tessa Bailey] “To steal or not to steal?” is the opening line of the book. Ginger, our mostly fearless heroine is deciding whether or not to steal fifty-thousand dollars from her passed-out stripper mother. Ultimately, she decides to take the cash (and her little sister, Willa) on the run to Chicago. She thinks she’s gotten away with it until she meets homicide cop and sexy new neighbor, Lieutenant Derek Tyler.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?
[Tessa Bailey] I like a heroine who is a little bad. And a lot impulsive. I came up with Ginger, a fast-talking country girl, as a character first. Then I gave her an important and difficult choice to make at the beginning of the book. I built the story based on that decision. Of course, I needed someone to counteract Ginger’s personality, so I came up with Derek, the sharp, young lieutenant with a need to control. Watching him as he tries to control wild child Ginger makes for a very entertaining story!
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Ginger?
[Tessa Bailey] Provocative, Willful, Vulnerable
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If Derek had a theme song, what would it be?
[Tessa Bailey] “Play with Fire” by the Rolling Stones
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Ginger is never without.
[Tessa Bailey ] Cowboy boots and Dolly Parton witticisms
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Derek’s bathroom?
[Tessa Bailey] A loofah, volumizing hair gel, decorative soaps.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Derek’s greatest regret?
[Tessa Bailey] He’s not the regretful type – although that might change throughout the book 
[Manga Maniac Cafe ] What are your greatest creative influences?
[Tessa Bailey] I have a group of friends who inspire a lot of the female relationships in my book. They are opinionated and swear like sailors. A lot of the time, I’ll ask myself, what would so-and-so say here? I was encouraged to write female characters who speak with more honesty after reading Tara Sivec’s Seduction in Snacks. I adore that book. The characters remind me of my friends.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?
[Tessa Bailey] Silence, gummy bears and warm socks.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?
[Tessa Bailey] On Dublin Street by Samantha Young.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?
[Tessa Bailey] When I was fourteen, I was at a boring family reunion in Maine. I found an old, beat-up copy of “Hidden Fires” by Sandra Brown in my grandmother’s suitcase. It was my first romance novel and I never looked back.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?
[Tessa Bailey] Play with my 19-month old, read, go to concerts, think up my next story.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?
[Tessa Bailey] My website is www.tessabailey.com
On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tessa-Bailey/107783312730783
Follow me on Twitter @mstessabailey
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!
GIVEAWAY TIME!!!
Ready for your chance to win a digital copy of Protecting What’s His? Just fill out the widget below. Earn extra entries for following:
Didn’t win? You can purchase Protecting What’s His from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the link below.
About the book:
She’s running from the law, and the law wants her bad.
The opportunity was just too damn delicious for Ginger Peet to pass up. The purse full of money she finds—$50,000 to be exact—could give her and her teen sister the new start they need. So she grabs the cash, her gothy sibling, and their life-sized statue of Dolly Parton, and blows outta Nashville in a cloud of dust. Chicago, here we come…
Turns out, Chicago has some pretty hot cops. Hot, intense, naughty-lookin’ cops like Derek Tyler, who looks like he could eat a girl up and leave her begging for more. And more. Tempting as he is, getting involved with the sexy homicide lieutenant next door poses a teensy problem for a gal who’s on the lam. But one thing is certain—Derek’s onto her, and he wants more than just a taste.
And as far as he’s concerned, possession is nine-tenths of the law.
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By: Michael Young,
on 3/20/2013
Poison Me by Cami Checketts
By: aquafortis,
on 3/25/2013
Reader Gut Reaction: This is the first Brenna Yovanoff book I've read. I meant to read The Replacement, but hadn't yet. And then this one caught my eye on the library shelves: a murder mystery, an unexpected love story…and a ghost or three. I've... Read the rest of this post
A Bird's-Eye View Of the People's Republic of China
Re-Constitution - Dark Justice in The Cave of treasures 
Re-Constitution - Defining Moments by Steven Clark Bradley
Halfway Across the Bridge To Hell 
The Far East Traveler Journal - Part One
Author Steven Clark Bradley - 
I would love to have YOU as a follower!
Visit my online Book Store? Go To:
Click Here to Go to
Author Steven Clark Bradley's Book Store
http://www.authorstevenclarkbradley.info/
______________________________________
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Click Click here and take a look 
On President's Day, What Do We Celebrate?
My Definition of the the modern
Four Lessons For Willow Morgan 
Is Barack Obama Just Another Jimmy Carter?
America's Condemner in Chief...
ISBN-10: 1594316937 ~~~ ISBN-13: 978-1594316937
So, How Do You Feel, Just Now?
(Click On Title Above Picture To Read Post)
By: Julie,
on 10/24/2012
Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.
I love the title for Stephen Blackmoore’s February release – Dead Things just sounds so cool!
In stores February 2013
Necromancer is such an ugly word, but it’s a title Eric Carter is stuck with.
He sees ghosts, talks to the dead. He’s turned it into a lucrative career putting troublesome spirits to rest, sometimes taking on even more dangerous things. For a fee, of course.
When he left L.A. fifteen years ago he thought he’d never go back. Too many bad memories. Too many people trying to kill him.
But now his sister’s been brutally murdered and Carter wants to find out why.
Was it the gangster looking to settle a score? The ghost of a mage he killed the night he left town? Maybe it’s the patron saint of violent death herself, Santa Muerte, who’s taken an unusually keen interest in him.
Carter’s going to find out who did it and he’s going to make them pay.
As long as they don’t kill him first.
What are you waiting on?
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By: Jennifer Wylie,
on 12/4/2012
The Story of IDENTITY ISSUES
Hi! My name is Claudia Whitsitt! I’d like to tell you about my latest mystery, Identity Issues. Thanks for reading!
It wasn’t until the threatening letter arrived (from Botswana) that I became a bit concerned about the theft of my husband’s passport some years previous. The letter, clearly meant for someone else, was disturbing. But in all his business travels, Don had never been to Botswana, nor did he have associates there. We blew it off. Then came the late night wrong numbers (also from Botswana) demanding my husband’s contact information. My interest peaked, but there weren’t enough dots to connect. The caller sought a man by the same name, a man not my husband. I never succeeded in convincing the persistent caller of his mistake and merely tolerated in his bi-annual calls. They became nothing more than an irritating interruption of my much-needed sleep.
After the calls faded, a parent who shared my surname visited me at Parent-Teacher conferences. Who’s named Whitsitt? C’mon, really! She claimed her husband shared the same first and middle name as my husband, along with a matching birth date and countless other similarities. This identity theft had come back to haunt us. FOR REAL. Right in our own backyard. That short twenty minute conference with the other Mrs. Whitsitt, who wound up making startling accusations, marked the conception of Identity Issues.
That disquieting meeting would have been enough to spark my writing of the book, but more puzzle pieces fell into my lap. Too many questions with too few answers and a simple schoolteacher from Michigan re-invents herself as an author of suspense.
I’ve always loved writing and even attempted to write an entire book when at the age of ten. But I found myself compelled to write this story in a way I’d never experienced before. It wouldn’t leave me alone. So, in September of 2006, I fired up my laptop and put fingers to the keyboard. To my surprise, the book poured out of me. Since the initial parts of the story were true, it seemed easy to recount the details. And I LOVED WRITING! In the process, I researched. Both the true elements of the story, to verify the facts, and the fiction portion, to add credibility. I wonder how many readers will be able to tell when the true story drifts into fiction. Can you?
Identity Issues is available exclusively at Amazon.com. Click here!
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By: Julie,
on 12/14/2012
Thanks to Penguin, I have a copy of City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte for one of you to win! I really enjoyed this quirky book, and I think you will,too! To enter, just fill out the widget below. Earn extra entries by following.
About the book:
Cosmically fast-paced and wildly imaginative, this debut novel is a perfect potion of magic and suspense
Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood.
Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide.
City of Dark Magic could be called a rom-com paranormal suspense novel—or it could simply be called one of the most entertaining novels of the year.
Didn’t win? You can purchase a copy from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the links below.
By: Julie,
on 12/18/2012
Adrian Faulkner, author of The Four Realms, is visiting the virtual offices today. Please welcome him.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.
[Adrian Faulkner] Ex-pop culture journalist turned Urban Fantasy writer. Lover of books, movies, TV and games. Good sense of humour. Complete & utter geek.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about The Four Realms?
[Adrian Faulkner] The story really starts with a dead body. When the novel starts we see half-vampire, Darwin and his friend and fallen angel, Cassidy running along the streets of London after Darwin smells the blood of the corpse. Cassidy’s had him surviving on rat’s blood for a while now to stop him killing, and it’s left Darwin gaunt and sickly. So Darwin sees a freshly dead corpse as a way to get a proper meal and keep Cassidy happy. It’s on the corpse they discover a notebook in a mysterious language.
It’s not long before Maureen Summerglass, an 82 year old gatekeeper between worlds, learns of the death of one of the wizards of the Friary of New Salisbury whilst visiting London. Suspecting a cover up, she breaks a lifetime of protocol and sneaks through the gateway in her cellar into New Salisbury hoping to find answers.
Darwin soon finds that someone else is after the notebook and willing to wipe out every last vampire if necessary. Maureen discovers danger in a world that is unlike that she has been lead to believe but instead one of fast food, black market goods and Tuk Tuks.
Darwin tries desperately to escape the mysterious Mr West and his cohorts, trying to save the vampire survivors in the process. Maureen, meanwhile, discovers that she might just be the first human female to be able to do magic; which is going to come in handy as people are trying to kill her as well.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?
[Adrian Faulkner] The concept for the land of Venefasia where the city of New Salisbury lies was born out of watching a news report on a remote Amazon tribe and seeing one of the kids wearing a Nike T-Shirt. It got me thinking how if the wardrobe from CS Lewis’s Narnia novels existed, it wouldn’t be used for wartime evacuees to go to tea with Fauns but for smuggling black market goods, weapons and drugs. As a result, the world of Venefasia has a bit more of a third world / Iron curtain feel than the typical medieval basis of a lot of fantasy.
At the time I first started work on The Four Realms, Buffy and as a result the kick ass female was really prevalent. I wanted to do something different and as a result decided there weren’t enough elderly protagonists. From that Maureen was pretty much there from day one. She’s been a load of fun to write.
Darwin and Cassidy took a bit more time. Originally they were a bit more “Lone wolf and cub” – an elderly warrior / protector and young innocent. As time went by their ages came closer together. Darwin became a bit more of an idealistic young man, and Cassidy became a lot more fun and kooky. She’s probably the most difficult to write as it’s hard to keep her light and fun with everything Darwin and her go through.
Mr West was the character who brought it together though. Who and what he is… well, that’s a bit of a spoiler but I’m hoping readers will like it and get an idea of the direction I’d like to take the story in through future novels.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three words best describe Darwin?
[Adrian Faulkner] “lack of identity” – He’s half vampire and the vampire council has always viewed him as a bit of a freak. But at the same time it’s hard to identify as human when you need blood to survive. Cassidy wants to bring more of the humanity out of him but that puts him in conflict with his desire to be seen as an equal by his vampire brethren.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Maureen won’t leave the house without.
[Adrian Faulkner] Probably her handbag. It would hold her keys, her purse and about a hundred tissues
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Darwin’s pockets?
[Adrian Faulkner] At the start of the book both he and Cassidy are homeless, so I guess a mobile cell phone, keys and money would be obvious answers.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is Maureen’s greatest regret?
[Adrian Faulkner] I think over the course of the novel, we see it’s her dedication to the Friary. She’s served them unquestioningly since the mantle of gatekeeper was passed to her by her mother. And as we get to see, they haven’t been too good at looking after her. Her house is a bit ramshackled. She dare not let anyone into the house in case they find the big oak door in the cellar. So she suffers with no heating, in fear of her nosey neighbours, only to discover that the Friary is thinking of closing her gateway and throwing her out on the streets.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?
[Adrian Faulkner] I have three. The first is Star Wars which just unleashed my imagination. It was like an explosion going off in my head when I first saw it. The second was the GI Joe comic book. On the surface it was a stupid toy tie-in but writer Larry Hama didn’t let that stop him from writing some fantastic characters. I remember looking up from one issue back in the 80s / early 90s and thinking to myself “Good story is character driven.” It was a revelation at the time. The final influence is Lord of the Rings, a book so detailed, so imaginative, it still blows my mind.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?
[Adrian Faulkner] A computer. I have been known to write draft chapters in longhand when they’ve been particularly tricky but mostly I like to type them directly into the computer
Diet Coke. This is my poison of choice. I drink way too much of the stuff.
Music. I find it difficult to write without music and own a ridiculous number of orchestral scores from films, television and games.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?
[Adrian Faulkner] Probably Lou Morgan’s Blood and Feathers. I know Lou so thought I had a good idea of what to expect, but sometimes a friend’s book can surprise you in a really good way. Thoroughly enjoyed it
[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?
[Adrian Faulkner] Probably CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I’d been a big reader before I read that at eight years old but that book was the one that made me want to be a writer. Looking back now, I can see all the faults, but even so I still have a fondness for it.
[Manga Maniac Cafe] What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?
[Adrian Faulkner] In my spare time, I’m a very active Geocacher. This is the hobby where you go hunting for hidden Tupperware in the countryside armed only with a GPS. It’s a lot of fun and is a good source of exercise. That said, I’ve been so busy with the book, I’ve hardly had time to do any these past few months
[Manga Maniac Cafe] How can readers connect with you?
[Adrian Faulkner] I have my own website over at www.adrianfaulkner.com where I blog and give updates. I’m also fairly active on Twitter as @figures
[Manga Maniac Cafe] Thank you!
The Four Realms is available now! Please click the link to order a digital copy from Amazon.
About the book
Half-vampire Darwin stumbles across a corpse on the streets of London, and in a pocket discovers a notebook in a mysterious language. Divided between human ethics and vampire bloodlust, Darwin finds himself both condemner and saviour of a race who’ve never considered him one of their own. Now, he must try and lead the survivors to sanctuary in New Salisbury before Mr West completes his genocide of the vampires in his quest to obtain the book…
Maureen Summerglass is eighty-two years old, and a prisoner in her ramshackle home. She is afraid to let people enter in case they discover the oak door in her cellar. Threatened with homelessness and retirement from her job as a gatekeeper between worlds, Maureen breaks protocol when the death of a close friend is covered up… and enters the city of New Salisbury to search for his missing notebook. There, she discovers a world unlike the one of myth and fairy tale she imagined, and instead one of black market economies, brand names and tuk tuks. As she investigates, not only is she in extreme danger, but discovers she may be the first human female able to use magic…
“An imaginative foray into a dark world of danger and adventure. Hang onto your hat!” – Gail Z. Martin, author of The Dread
About the author
Adrian Faulkner has been writing stories since he was 7 and has never really stopped making things up.
He created and, for 10 years, edited Action-Figure, a global entertainment news website covering geek market (toys, collectibles, comics, movies). The site hit a quarter of a million audited page impressions a day and was considered a market leader and industry benchmark. During this time he worked with a number of celebrities including Good Charlotte, Rob Zombie, Mike Mignola and others on promoting entertainment properties and associated merchandise. He has interviewed a number of celebrities including Charlize Theron, Kate Beckinsale and Stan Winston.
He has also written for numerous magazines including ToyFare, Ultimate Adventure, Area51 and Memorabilia (where he was contributing editor) and along with Steve Holland, Alex Summersby, Steve White, Toby Weidmann and Tim Muray has written a book on Sci-Fi Art.
In 2009, he sold the site to allow more time on his fiction. In 2011, he had a short story published in the British Fantasy Society’s BFS Journal.
Adrian lives in Berkshire and in his spare time likes to play World of Warcraft and go geocaching. He is independently ranked within the top 50 geocachers in the country.
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By: aquafortis,
on 12/27/2012
Reader Gut Reaction: My next book has psychic powers in it, and I've always enjoyed reading books about ESP and such (HUGE Lois Duncan fan, here), so I was excited to read Cheryl Rainfield's latest YA novel, Parallel Visions. I was also happy to see... Read the rest of this post
By: Julie,
on 1/24/2013
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Title: Crash Author: Lisa McMann |
May Contain Spoilers
From Amazon:
If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first of four books from the New York Times bestselling author of the Wake trilogy.
Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.
What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode…and nine body bags in the snow.
The vision is everywhere—on billboards, television screens, windows—and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember.
In this riveting start to a gripping series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act—and act fast—to keep her vision from becoming reality.
Review:
Crash arrived in my mailbox as an unsolicited review copy, and after reading it, I’m glad that I received it as I never would have picked it up on my own. Protagonist Jules Demarco keeps having the same horrifying vision. She sees a snow plow smashing into a building, the building explode, and then seven body bags in the snow. The crash stalks her relentlessly. Every time she looks at billboards, the TV, or computer screens, it’s there, playing out in all of it’s fiery glory. It’s almost like it’s taunting her. She can’t even close her eyes because all she sees is the unrelenting vision of the crash. When she sees one of the faces in one of the body bags, she is shocked. It’s the face of the boy she’s loved since grade school. On the outs with him because of a feud between their families, she’s determined to somehow stop the accident from happening, all the while doubting her own sanity. Who would believe her, anyway, when mental illness runs in her family?
Jules’ is a junior in high school, and her life revolves around the family restaurant. She works there after school and on the weekend, and since she doesn’t have any friends, that’s fine by her. She and her brother are bullied at school because of the family feud between the Demarcos and the Angottis, a rival restaurant family. Their families have been feuding for generations, and her grandfather fell into a depression after the Angottis became more successful and killed himself. Her father isn’t exactly stable either. He’s a hoarder, and Jules hates being in their messy apartment. There are days when her father can’t even find the energy to get out of bed in the morning, so when she starts seeing the visions, she thinks she’s succumbed to mental illness as well.
Wow. I don’t think I would have coped as well as Jules if I started seeing scary visions of some weird accident that may or may not happen. The visions terrify her, but she has no one to confide in. She can’t tell her parents; her mother gets through each day through sheer force of will and a fake positive attitude, and her father can’t be depended on. She doesn’t want to tell her older brother or her younger sister because she is afraid that they will think she’s nuts. She is beginning to think she is nuts! The only thing that keeps her from totally losing it is the urgency she feels about stopping the accident from happening. She needs to save those seven lives, including the life of the boy she still hopelessly loves.
I loved the relationships between the younger characters in this book. Jules and her siblings have each other’s backs, and nothing is going to come between them. They may bicker occasionally, but they are all in this weird restaurant rivalry thing together. All of their former friends picked the Angottis when it was time to choose sides, and now the Demarcos are outcasts. Jules concentrated on keeping her head down and making it through each day unnoticed. The vision compels her to make a difference, to make waves, and she resists at first. She is already mocked enough. But when she finally embraces that there is something that she can do to change the future, she finds it empowering. She finally confronts her feelings for Sawyer in an emotionally charged rant, and she finally stands up for herself. I loved the scene in the library where she finally fights back against the girls who have made her life miserable. Jules is a fiercely intelligent young woman, and she shouldn’t have to take any crap from anyone.
My biggest quibble with the book is the pacing. Since Jules doesn’t have a life, the vision is everything. It is everywhere. It is constantly dissected and picked apart, and frankly, after 200+ pages of that, I grew weary of the vision. That impatience with the crash being played out again and again and again diminished some of the suspense. My other complaint? The entire time I was reading, I was craving a pizza. And I don’t even like pizza!
Grade: B/B+
Review copy provided by publisher
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By: tanita davis,
on 2/1/2013
Honestly? This is kind of a hard book to review. Not because of the plot - the story's there, all right - but because it's hard to convey whose side we should be on. Do the bad guys really mean harm? Is the narrative - in juvie, thanks - at all... Read the rest of this post
By: Ella Press,
on 2/4/2013
Allie Kim suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum: a fatal allergy to sunlight that confines her and her two best friends, Rob and Juliet, to the night. When freewheeling Juliet takes up Parkour—the stunt-sport of scaling and leaping off tall buildings—Allie and Rob have no choice but to join her, if only to protect her. Though potentially deadly, Parkour after dark makes Allie feel truly alive, and for the first time equal to the “daytimers.” On a random summer night, the trio catches a glimpse of what appears to be murder. Allie alone takes it upon herself to investigate, and the truth comes at an unthinkable price. Navigating the shadowy world of specialized XP care, extreme sports, and forbidden love, Allie ultimately uncovers a secret that upends everything she believes about the people she trusts the most.
By: Julie,
on 2/5/2013
Asprey Charles has always assumed he would one day take his place in the family art appraisal and insurance firm. “His place” meaning he plans to continue to enjoy his playboy lifestyle, lavish money on his Cessna, and shirk every responsibility that dares come his way.
But when a life of crime is thrust upon him, he is just as happy to slip on a mask and cape and play a highwayman rogue. After all, life is one big game—and he excels at playing.
Poppy Donovan vows that her recent release from jail will be her last—no more crime, no more cons. But when she learns that her grandmother lost her savings to a low-life financial advisor, she’s forced to do just one more job.
It’s all going smoothly until the necklace she intends to pawn to fund her con is stolen by a handsome, mocking, white-collar thief. A thief who, it turns out, could take a whole lot more than money. If she’s not careful, this blue blood with no business on her side of the tracks could run off with the last thing she can afford to lose. Her heart.
Warning: This book contains masked crusaders, a remorseless con woman, and plans to boost a ten-million-dollar painting. Expect high speeds and fast hands.
Ready for your chance to win a copy of Tamara Morgan’s Confidence Tricks? Just fill out the widget below. Earn extra entries for following!
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By: Julie,
on 2/5/2013
|
Title: Confidence Tricks Author: Tamara Morgan |
May Contain Spoilers
From Amazon:
Asprey Charles has always assumed he would one day take his place in the family art appraisal and insurance firm. “His place” meaning he plans to continue to enjoy his playboy lifestyle, lavish money on his Cessna, and shirk every responsibility that dares come his way.
But when a life of crime is thrust upon him, he is just as happy to slip on a mask and cape and play a highwayman rogue. After all, life is one big game—and he excels at playing.
Poppy Donovan vows that her recent release from jail will be her last—no more crime, no more cons. But when she learns that her grandmother lost her savings to a low-life financial advisor, she’s forced to do just one more job.
It’s all going smoothly until the necklace she intends to pawn to fund her con is stolen by a handsome, mocking, white-collar thief. A thief who, it turns out, could take a whole lot more than money. If she’s not careful, this blue blood with no business on her side of the tracks could run off with the last thing she can afford to lose. Her heart.
Warning: This book contains masked crusaders, a remorseless con woman, and plans to boost a ten-million-dollar painting. Expect high speeds and fast hands.
Review:
Confidence Tricks is a fun, fast-paced romance with a likable ex-con protagonist. I loved Poppy. She is different from most romance heroines, and she’s brutally honest about her prospects for the future. After she falls for rich guy Asprey, she understands the reality of their relationship, as in, there can’t be one. How can a guy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who has never wanted for anything, understand that a future with Poppy, a poor girl who has been living on the edge for years, is out of the question? It was the difference in their social status that really attracted me to this story, and by the end of the book, I was convinced that Poppy and Asprey would find their HEA. It wouldn’t be easy, but, dang, they deserved to be happy! Together!
The story starts out with Asprey completely at Poppy’s mercy. She’s got a stiletto heel jabbed against his throat, and she’s not afraid to use it! She’s already dislocated his shoulder, and she’s not going to hesitate to inflict more bodily harm. How dare he interfere with her mark? She has been hanging around with slimeball Todd for weeks, all in an effort to steal back the money he stole from her grandmother. How dare these amateur thieves try to steal her thunder.
I enjoyed the power imbalance between Poppy and Asprey. She is hard as nails and can open a can of whoop ass on him without even thinking about it. Asprey, on the other hand, is like a genteel Robin Hood, stealing back jewelry and art from their owners so they can collect on insurance policies. Why? Because everything that he and his older brother are stealing are fakes. Oops! The cons are very convoluted in Confidence Tricks, and there were several times when I had to throw away everything I thought I knew was going on, because Tamara Morgan had me totally bamboozled. Clueless. It was fun watching as the web of deception unraveled, leaving the characters second guessing themselves.
I was entertained by Asprey and Poppy’s unusual courtship. They try to steal an espresso machine in a bet for answers to the burning questions they have for each other. They don’t quite trust each other, but as they are thrown from one dangerous adventure to the next, they find that they don’t have anyone else to rely on but each other. When Poppy’s less than shining history is finally revealed, Asprey doesn’t seem phased at all. He can put her past mistakes in the past where they belong, though he constantly questions why she would act as she did by turning herself in. The romance is hot and flares quickly out of control, and I thought that the two made a great couple. Even better, Asprey’s older brother is disapproving and trying to find ways to drive the two apart. Stupid brothers!
I did think that the action lagged during the poker games. Poppy and Asprey just can’t compete with Paul Newman and Robert Redford; I don’t think any characters could. How do you pull off a better sting than those guys? I don’t think you can, so these scenes didn’t work for me. The rest of the cons did, though, and I was caught up in the rest of the intrigue and suspense. And again, I loved the stark contrast between Poppy and Asprey’s backgrounds.
If you enjoy suspense, danger, and cons in your romance, I think you will like Confidence Tricks. Not sure? Check back later today for the opportunity to win a copy for yourself.
Grade: B
Review copy provided by author
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By: Julie,
on 2/8/2013
|
Title: Also Known As Author: Robin Benway |
May Contain Spoilers
From Amazon:
Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations. Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She’ll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school’s security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.
Review:
When I saw Also Known As on Netgalley, I immediately requested a copy. I love YA books featuring spies, espionage, and danger, and this title looked like it had all of that in spades. Plus, as an added bonus, protagonist Maggie is a gifted safe-cracker. Seriously, it just doesn’t get any more fun than that! The first chapter kind of bogged me down, but once I hit my stride, I gobbled Also Known As in just an afternoon. I didn’t want to put it down, and it had me so engaged in the story that I was able to overlook a few inconsistences that would have driven me crazy otherwise. This is a fun read, with a confident though in over her head heroine, and an engaging cast of supporting characters. I really hope Maggie will return for more adventures.
Maggie has been living the life of a spy forever. Both of her parents are employed by the Collective, and they spend their days trying to make the world a safer place by putting the brakes on gun runners, human traffickers, and other nefarious plots designed to shake up the world order. Maggie has been cracking locks since she was a toddler, and she fully expects to follow in her parents’ spy footsteps, cracking locks and stealing away with evil doers’ plans to destroy peace and stability. When she’s given her first solo assignment in NYC, she couldn’t be more thrilled. All she has to do is befriend Jesse Oliver. Jesse’s father runs a powerful publishing empire, and he’s planning to run an expose outing Maggie, her family, and the Collective. If she can’t steal the documents that threaten to ruin her family, they will be in big, big danger.
Now, I’m not even going to wonder why the Collective, a super secret spy organization, is putting an inexperienced spy in charge of saving everyone’s bacon. Instead, I allowed myself to get sucked into Maggie’s upbeat and very entertaining narrative. She has all of the confidence in the world, and she is going to make everyone proud of her. She is going to live up to her legacy and steal those damaging documents! All she has to do is pretend to be friends with Jesse, and she’s in like Flynn!
Only that’s not how things work out. As Maggie embraces her assignment, she’s determined to do everything in her power to be successful. But as she makes friends with a social outcast, and gets caught up in going to school and hanging out with kids her own age, she starts to see that it’s more difficult to pretend that she ever had thought. And after she and Jesse connect on a personal level, she realizes, to her dismay, that she’s not pretending anymore. She really likes him, and she really likes her new friend Roux, and she knows her parents are never going to understand her lapse in judgment. They’ve trained her better than that, haven’t they?
I loved Maggie’s anxiety about hurting her new friends. Now that she actually has some, she is loathe to lose them. She is lying to everyone, though, and it’s making her miserable. Being a teen spy is just not as easy as it sounds! She can’t let her parents know that she kissed Jesse (and that she’d do it again in a second), or that her friendship with Roux isn’t just for cover. She is dealing with so many issues that she never considered, it’s no wonder she can’t get a decent night’s sleep!
Also Known As lived up to all of my expectations, and even exceeded them. The pacing is spot on, the plot never lagged, and Maggie is a fun, likable character, even if she did need to be knocked down a peg or two. Recommended for fans of Ally Carter. Check back later today for your chance to win a copy of Also Known As!
Grade: B/B+
Review copy provided by publisher
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By: tanita davis,
on 2/12/2013
Well, sure we all know who Rosemary Wells is. She's the one who does the bunnies! The adorable bunnies! The cuddly bunnies! The fabulous Ruby and Max! Oh, and Nora, Yoko, and McDuff, too, but mostly we know her from Ruby and Max. So, how did we go... Read the rest of this post
Man, I don't know why I keep forgetting about this book!!! Yeah, the size seems a bit daunting. But I'm very curious about it.
This sounds really interesting. I am putting it on the wish list.
I kept forgetting, too!! Then I did my usual browse through the new YA shelves at the library and it immediately caught my eye. I think you'll enjoy it--it was a good combo of murder mystery/suspense and supernatural fantasy.