Rae Lori's Blog, page 27

Starseed Book review

Starseed by Liz Gruder







Blurb: Kaila Guidry has always known she is different. When she meets Jordyn Stryker at school, she finds out just how different.

Jordyn was born and raised far from Earth, a starseed, one of six new students sent to Louisiana's Bush High to learn human ways. But Jordyn didn't count on meeting someone like Kaila.

When Kaila is pushed to her limit by high school bullying and cruelty, Jordyn awakens her to a new reality—and to love. But to prove herself, Kaila must look the other way as the real purposes of the starseeds unfold.

As the horrific plan behind the starseed visit to Earth moves inexorably forward, Kaila and Jordan, caught in an impossible love, must determine where their true loyalties lie.





Starseed was a fun read that recalled many missed memories of Twilight Zone (particularly the episode 'Lateness of the Hour'), The Outer Limits (the new more so than the old) and X-Files with a dash of high school drama and antics. Ms. Gruder takes the intricacies of alien abduction tales and mixes them with current reptilian conspiracy tales, combining both together to give her outsider heroine a journey of self discovery about who she really is. Heroine Kaila felt like an authentic teenager as she struggles to go to school and mingle with flesh and blood people while going to school like a regular teen. Her mother, after having a traumatic experience that is explained later in the book, is scared for Kaila. Not only is her physical appearance different from "the norm" but she also has a supernatural ability that her mother believes puts her at risk to beings not of this world.



Kaila's experience at school kicks off this tale as we are introduced to Kaila's future friends and a bevy of the usual school types which include, the preppies, the outsiders, the jocks, the nerds, the gamers and everything in between. Then there are "the aliens" as the other kids call them, a group of teens believed to be raised in a cult near New Mexico and thus have no parents of their own. They always travel in a group, wear silver jumpsuits and have large intimidating eyes. One of the things I really liked about Starseed was the commentary on humans from the outsiders. I liked how they talked about the compartmentalization of high school cliques and the cruelty that youngsters can often afflict on those different from them. I rooted for Kaila to survive in this atmosphere and was even more interested in how and why the clique soon took interest in her. While her curiosity was intriguing, I did find a moment or two where she was tough to root for when I feel she should have stood her ground and not given in to rowdy peer pressue (i.e. the party scene at her house) but I imagine being a teen after experiencing a seclusion, one would react in the same way especially if her crush were involved.



Ms. Gruder gives each character their own personality with a focus on expanding each of the outsiders, especially our curious hero Jordyn Stryker. I liked the tension between Jordyn and Kaila and was curious to read on to see how the abduction angle was used (especially in the classroom scenes) and why Kaila was so important. I love how Ms. Gruder tied in current celebrities and explained how many of them aren't quite human themselves. 



While the book may elicit comparisons to a recent popular teen vampire book featuring similar tropes, I think Starseed stands on its own as it brings a nice sci-fi flavor with a dash of romance to the genre. Fans of SF in general can enjoy this and the juicy splashes of science fact and fiction along with those who would like to dip into the genre pool without being drowned in too much SF too soon. This is a welcome edition to the SFR YA genre. 



 Reading advisory: Contains language and some sexual themes/references

Kick Butt Characters Hop March 23rd - 28th

2nd Annual Kick Butt Characters Hop

Hosted by Good Choice Reading 

& I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

March 23rd - 28th


Young adult books feature some of the best kick-butt characters around! For this hop, I wanted to focus on a different kind of kick-butt character. A whip smart gal who uses her kick butt skills for the heist! That's right, from the author who brought us The Gallagher Girl spies comes....The Heist's Society's Kat Bishop.





Blurb: When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.



Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.



For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.



Although Kat, her uncle and her crew aren't in the most honest of professions, the acts are noble in an effort to right the wrongs of the true criminals.



The Heist Society is one of my fave books featuring one kickin' kick butt character. I'm offering 1 hardcover copy of the first in the series to a visitor who leaves a comment below. This giveaway is open internationally.






Giveaway Details:

To enter, please leave a comment with your email addy telling me your fave kick butt YA character to date!




Last Day to Enter is 3/28/13




Optional Extra Entries:

+1 Follow this Blog

+1 Be or become my friend on Goodreads

+1 Follow me on Twitter

+1 Friend me on Facebook

Ixeos Book Blast

Ixeos




The McClellands are enjoying a lazy summer vacation at the
beach when they are lured from our world into Ixeos, an alternate Earth.
Finding themselves lost in a maze of tunnels under Paris and surrounded by
strangers, they discover that they have been brought to Ixeos for one purpose:
 to take the planet back from humanoid aliens who have claimed it.
With the aid of the tunnels and a mysterious man named Landon, the teens travel
the world seeking the key that will allow them to free Darian, the long-imprisoned
rebel leader. But the aliens aren't the only problem on Ixeos -- the
McClellands have to deal with brutal gangs, desperate junkies, and a world
without power, where all the technology is owned by the aliens, and where most
of the population has been killed or enslaved. The worst part? There's no way
home.














Amazon
* Barnes
& Noble

















Author Jennings Wright







Born and raised in Florida, Jennings spent her early years
reading anything she could get her hands on, when she wasn't spending time in
and on the water. She won a prize in the 6th grade for her science fiction
stories.




Jennings attended the University of Tampa, graduating with a
B.A. in Political Science, and almost enough credits for B.A.s in both English
and History. She attended graduate school at the University of West Florida,
studying Psychology. She spent time over the years doing various kinds of
business writing, editing, and teaching writing, but mostly having and raising
her family, homeschooling her children, owning and running a business with her
husband, and starting a non-profit.




Thanks to a crazy idea called NaNoWriMo Jennings got back
into creative writing in 2011 and hasn't stopped since. She currently lives in
North Carolina with her husband, also a business owner and writer, and two
children, and travels extensively with her family, and her non-profit in
Uganda.











Facebook * Twitter * Website * Blog * Amazon * Goodreads
















Tour
Schedule






























Book Blast Giveaway



$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash



Ends 4/7/13





Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an
Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to
prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or
have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and
announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new
winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook,
Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The
number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway
was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and
sponsored by the authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.




a Rafflecopter
giveaway

Need - Want #2 - Cover Reveal

Need



By
Stephanie Lawton



Published
by Inkspell Publishing


http://www.inkspellpublishing.com


Release
date: May 17, 2013





Synopsis:

Isaac Laroche is cursed. All he wants to do is hide out and
feel sorry for himself. Never mind that he got caught sleeping with his
seventeen-year-old piano student, or that he abandoned her when the truth was
exposed.




Isaac’s feisty high school sweetheart has different plans.
Heather Swann has returned to their hometown of Mobile, Alabama,
to regroup after breaking up with her troll of a fiancé. She’s restless and
looking for a diversion, but she bites off more than she can chew when she sets
her sights on rehabilitating Isaac with her unorthodox sexual, mental, and
physical plans.




The two quickly reconnect, but their happiness is threatened
by family secrets, old vendettas and the death of a beloved father-figure.




Can Heather handle Isaac’s baggage, or will her own come
back to haunt them both?




Author bio:




After collecting a couple English degrees in the
Midwest, Stephanie Lawton suddenly awoke in the deepest reaches of the Deep South. Culture shock inspired her to write about
Mobile, Alabama, her adopted city, and all the ways Southern culture, history
and attitudes seduce the unsuspecting.

A lover of all things gothic, she can often be spotted
photographing old cemeteries, historic buildings and, ironically, the beautiful
beaches of the Gulf
Coast. She also has a
tendency to psychoanalyze people, which comes in handy when creating character
profiles.




Links:

Author website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Starseed Book Blast

Starseed

Author: Liz Gruder

ISBN: 978-1937178291

Publisher: WiDo Publishing

Published: February 2013



SUMMARY



Kaila Guidry has always known she is different. When she meets Jordyn Stryker at school, she finds out just how different.



Jordyn was born and raised far from Earth, a starseed, one of six new students sent to Louisiana's Bush High to learn human ways. But Jordyn didn't count on meeting someone like Kaila.



When Kaila is pushed to her limit by high school bullying and cruelty, Jordyn awakens her to a new reality—and to love. But to prove herself, Kaila must look the other way as the real purposes of the starseeds unfold.



As the horrific plan behind the starseed visit to Earth moves inexorably forward, Kaila and Jordan, caught in an impossible love, must determine where their true loyalties lie.





Praise



"You know from the opening paragraph that something very strange is going on… We see Kaila try to live the life of a normal teen, and we see her "otherness" pull her back into an increasingly tangled web of questions, deceit, and hidden intentions. Liz really shines as a writer, lining the closets and drawers of everyday life with spine-chilling suspense that springs out at you when you least expect it. Starseed is an entertaining read. I highly recommend."

--Patricia B. Smith. Author “What the Animals Tell Me” and “Fifty Shades of Santa” (clean romance fiction)



"Liz Gruder’s characters come alive through youthful, spunky narrative, and her headstrong heroine, Kaila Guidry, elicits a reader’s encouragement from the first page. Fans of Amanda Hocking will find themselves similarly transported into Gruder’s exploration of the dark sides of faith, love, higher dimensions, and, of course, high school." --Jadie Jones, young-adult fantasy author






Purchase

Publisher * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Amazon Kindle








Author Liz Gruder



As a youth, Liz Gruder saw a series of UFOs with her best friend while riding bikes. Ever since, she’s held a fascination for the stars. An avid reader, she used to hide under her covers and read with a flashlight. She has degrees in English and Psychology from Tulane University, a nursing license and a yoga certification. After going through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Liz realized how short life is and is now slowly fulfilling her bucket list: she’s been to the Egyptian pyramids (totally awesome and thought provoking) and is now teaching yoga and writing speculative fiction. Starseed is her debut novel.














Goodreads * Twitter * Website * Blog * Facebook








Tour Schedule











Book Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 4/7/13



Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.







a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read An Ebook Week ~ March 3-9th!

It's that wonderful time again where we celebrate the digital word!



Wow have we come a long way from the start of this event! Rita Toews, the founder, has been right there from the start touting the digital frontier. Every year she has gathered authors, publishers and vendors for discounts, free reads and special giveaways to spread the word about ebooks. As I look back at just a few months ago with the rise of digital readers, books on phones and tablets among other devices, I can't help but feel like we've crossed a threshold. Being an author who has seen the industry go from strictly paper submissions to now accepting email submissions (and I'm talking the big publishers who never, ever considered e-reads), it's been an incredible boon for the publishing industry and especially for authors.



I'm proud to be a part of this wonderful annual event. This year, while I'm grinding my gears to get my readers some new goodies, I'm offering a half off discount for the Ashen Twilight Series over at Smashwords. Discounts and links are available at my website.



Speaking of work, I know I have been pretty silent on the update front. Between individual projects, a personal life that is currently taking a big giant next step into the next phase (wedding bells), and of course juggling different writing projects, it's been even more chaotic than usual! I'm currently working on a few books that I plan to have released in the coming months. Thanks to all my readers for their lovely patience and emails about the next in my series books. Inheritance of Ashes is still in progress as I want to make sure I get everything down on the page to round out all the loose ends the first two books have opened up. Some story nuggets are floating around my brain that may give away to a few continuing stories that will most likely be a spin-off if they lead to anything. For now, I will say that many of the questions will be answered (and some more may be raised). Judging from the previous poll, I'll be releasing some more excerpts to those who are interested in reading.



I have some more stories that will be coming up, including a reworked romantic suspense noir that many of my readers loved in its previous script format. Now it will be a complete novel (woo hoo). Cover reveal to come soon!



Also in the works is the next installment to the Cimmerian Series which will finish up that duology. Also in progress is a very fun book I can't wait to release: a fast paced action adventure novel featuring a dark assassin hero and a whip smart, professional CEO heroine in the midst of a very timely story about corporate takeovers, hits and intrigue. I'm 1/3rd of the way through this one and I can't wait to get to the end to present all the twists and turns throughout the story. As I get towards the finish line, I'll reveal more but if you enjoyed my Before Dawn Breaks book, this new release will bring me back to my suspense roots. ;-) I don't like to reveal too much about my stories in progress because I believe in the element of surprise and as a writer, the story can always change based on how the characters are feeling that day!



In any event, stay tuned!

Reconnaissance - Colonization #2 - Cover Reveal & Giveaway

Blurb: Nova Williams has lost her one shot at Lieutenant hood and at
love. Lieutenant Crophaven has promoted her rival, Andromeda, all because her
lifemate, Sirius, sacrificed their mission to win back Andromeda’s love. 




While sneaking out to prove Andromeda is a fake, Nova finds an
alien ship hovering over their colony. Lieutenant Crophaven assigns her to a
reconnaissance mission, giving her a second chance to redeem herself. Sirius
must fly her and a research team to the vessel to decide if they are a threat.
Thrown together with the lifemate that betrayed her, she battles with her own
jealousy while her team battles for their lives.




Can she forgive Sirius in order to save her team and warn her
colony?








About the author:




Aubrie Dionne writes science fiction fantasy with romantic elements.
Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald
Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her
books are published by Inkspell Publishing, Entangled Publishing, Lyrical
Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She’s also a professional flutist in New England.



Author's Website: http://www.authoraubrie.net



Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2964057.Aubrie_Dionne



Blog: http: http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com



Twitter: @authoraubrie











Giveaway:








Prize 1: 1
Paperback after release



Prize 2: 5
eBooks after release



Prize 3: 1
Necklace (Photo attached)










a Rafflecopter giveaway

Romance is in the Air Giveaway Hop Winner!

A belated thanks to all who entered and gave suggestions in the comments of the last hop! I was excited to see some of my own faves listed (both classics and contemporary offerings) and I always welcome new reads on my shelf!



The random number generator has spoken and the winner of the giveaway hop is:




Pauline Tolentino


Congrats and a big thanks to all who entered!

February Authors Kindle Fire Giveaway

Kindle Fire HD Giveaway!








The winner will have the option of receiving a Kindle Fire HD (US Only)







Or $199 Amazon.com Gift Card (International)







Or $199 in Paypal Cash (International)











This giveaway is sponsored by these Authors:





The Reluctant Bachelorette by Rachael Anderson


One Classic Latin Lover, Please by Marcia Lynn McClure

Betrayal by Anne Patrick

Belleyache by Crystal Marcos

Ethan Justice: Origins by Simon Jenner

I Have People by Taylor Dean

For What It's Worth by Karey White

A Kiss of Ashen Twilight by Rae Lori

The Unraveling by Holly Barbo

Fateful by Cheri Schmidt

Dracian Legacy by Priya Kanaparti

Cascade Brides by Bonnie Blythe

A World Apart by Camelia Miron Skiba

Reality Bites, Tales of a Half-Vampire by Shaunda Wenger

Face-Off by Stacy Juba

Two Equals by Marta Szemik

The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw by Suzy Turner

One for Kami by Charlene A. Wilson

Freak of Nature by Julia Crane

Grace Doll by Jennifer Laurens

The Secret of the Scarlet Stone by T.L. Clarke

Gallagher's Hope by M.K. McClintock

The Spy Lover & Prize Winning Pacific Stories by Kiana Davenport

Rejected by Heather Bixler

Rapunzel Untangled by Cindy Bennett

A Hard Act to Follow by Henry Bushkin

Starseed by Liz Gruder














Giveaway Details

1 winner will receive their choice of a Kindle Fire HD (US Only), $199 Amazon Gift Card or $199 in Paypal Cash (Internaitonal).

Ends 2/28/13



Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Putting My Author Hat On For a Moment for A Bit of Link Salad

Some author news for folks who have been waiting for it!









I've teamed up with a group of amazing authors for Kathy's February Authors Giveaway and boy do we have some goodies for readers! I'll post about that in a bit along with a rafflecopter link for you all to enter.




~*~




Also, I want to take a moment to give a big yay to Heather Massey of The Galaxy Express who gathered myself and other SFR fan bloggers to judge the very first SFR Galaxy Awards to recognize achievements for writers of Sci-Fi Romance. The Galaxy Awards offered a wonderful selection of books that I'm sure will satisfy any SFR reader's taste. Check out the official awards blog here. A full list of winners can be found here.



A big congrats to all the winners! The next awards are January 31st, 2014. Hope to see you all there!




~*~







Lastly, it's that time again for the annual Read An E-Book Week March 3-9th! If you've been skeptical about trying e-reads, now is the time. The event's wonderful organizer is compiling a list of authors, publishers and bookstores offering discounts, free reads and goodies throughout the week. I'll be discounting my Ashen Twilight Series to prep readers for the upcoming third and last in the series trilogy. Mosey on over to the site to check out the goodies that will be available early next month!