Colleen Houck's Blog, page 5

Announcing the Spring 2018 YASH Teams!

Hello Readers!

It’s that time again. The leaves are budding, the tulips blooming, and the baby chickens are peeping. That must mean it’s almost time for the spring YA Scavenger Hunt! For all of you who love finding new reads, this is the thing for you. If you’ve never heard of it,the hunt, we showcase new and upcoming YA releases, give out tons of prizes, and release special bonus material. Sound interesting?

This spring we will have one hundred twenty authors split into six teams. Each team is assigned a color. The blog hop begins April 3rd and runs through Sunday, April 8th. It’s easy to play. All you have to do to play is to either start on my blog or head directly over to the YASH website. There you’ll find a list of all the authors participating as well as an answer sheet you can print off to gather the info you’re hunting for and to keep track of any bonus contests you may have entered.

Are you ready to see all the books featured this season? Here they are!

Which team are you the most excited about?

Colleen

Tiger’s Dream Playlist

Today’s the day I post the Tiger’s Dream playlist. This is a long one and it occurs to me that I’m missing some of my favorite songs including the word dream in the title. Oh well. All these are good ones. There are seventy-nine songs altogether. Sheesh! It will take you guys hours to listen to the whole thing. I guess there could be worse things in life.

I’m going to point out a few key songs and talk about why I’ve included them. Here’s the list for you all to peruse.

As you might guess, the beginning of the playlist is mostly about Kishan moping and missing Kelsey. One of my favorites of this batch is “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz. This video is a little weird. Love the song though.

Scrolling down to another song sitting at #18 is a song called “Brother” by NeedToBreathe. There is a particularly poignant scene featuring the two Rajaram brothers and I really enjoyed seeing how far they’ve come since the beginning. It’s was very emotional for me to write and I hope you all feel the same when reading it.

At #41 there’s a song by Adam Lambert called “Nirvana” and it really fits this book well. Anamika and Kishan are figuring out their roles as Durga and Damon and they come to rely on one another since there’s no one else in the world in their unique situation.

As you move further in the book, you’ll see Anamika and Kishan struggling with who they are as people vs what people think they are. This song called “I Was Here” by Beyonce, really fits that theme.

I’ve liked the song “Who Wants to Live Forever” by Queen for a long time but then I heard The Tenors sing it and saw the video and I was floored. I’m not going to say anything more about it than it really fits with the end of this book and the end of the series. Also I want to say when you pick up this book have a box of tissues handy.

“Who wants to live forever? Who dares to love forever, when love must die?”

Gorgeous lyrics.

Enjoy the playlist until the book comes out!

The Tiger’s Dream Pre-Launch Party!

For all of my fans who wished they could have attended the pre-launch party for Tiger’s Dream but didn’t get to, here’s my party report.

Lucky for me, I had a trusted team of friends and relatives to make it all work including my hubby, my mom, two sisters, and two friends. Two handled the tickets, one sold books, my sister, Linda, was the emcee, while my other sister ran the PowerPoint for the game.

We started out with a word search. If you’d like doing those, here’s a copy you can print out.

We had around eighty fans in attendance including fans from Utah, Arizona, California, Washington, Oregon, New York, and even Canada! As you can see, the party began on the road for many attendees who celebrated by dressing up, decorating their cars, and having tea parties on the way.

Inside the party, fans were given a swag bag full of gifts including a plush white and a plush black tiger, a Fanindra ring, a signed poster of the Tiger’s Dream cover, an early copy of the book, a tiger bracelet, a water bottle, and some other things I can’t remember right now. The black tote featured the cover of the book along with a quote that reads, “Some curses are meant to be…” Maybe one of you can figure out where that came from. =)

There was an amazing Tiger’s Curse themed cake, catered food, and a photo booth! There were some Indian dishes to try and the cake was three layers of deliciousness, including chocolate with chocolate ganache, coconut with tropical filling, and raspberry lemonade, the cake baker’s signature flavor, which we ran out of at the party and I never got to taste!

In addition to the trivia contest, we gave out prizes for who traveled the furthest, who has read the series the most times (the winner had read the series fifteen times), and we had a costume contest!

The costumes were really creative. Fans dressed up as Kelsey in her blue dress, Kelsey as Parvati, Kelsey as a Rakshasa queen, the blue dragon, Yesubai, Durga, the Phoenix, and more!

Next, we did a Q & A, an interview with Sharif Dean, the model portraying Kishan on the cover, photos with everyone, and a book signing. We went a bit over time but it was super fun! We learned all kinds of fun things about Sharif, including the fact that he posed for the cover without a shirt…just pausing to let that one sink in. That’s his real hair on the cover. (It was longer then) Fans also wanted to know if he’d read the books yet. The answer was no but he did pick up the entire series at the party to take home and get started.

He said he was surprised at how enthusiastic the fans were, helped me choose winners for the costume contest, and had a great time meeting everyone.

During the Q & A I was asked about my next book, The Lantern’s Ember. One lucky winner won an advanced copy. We talked about the Tiger’s Curse movie (nothing new on that one but there’s still hope). I confirmed that, yes, Tiger’s Dream is written in Kishan’s perspective. Apparently he had a lot to say when you consider the size of the book. Yes, you will see Ren in this book in probably a surprising way, as well as all the other characters you know and love. I also shared that I’m currently writing a sci-fi book.

It was an amazing party and I wish all of you could have been there. It was so much fun to hang out with my readers and celebrate the long awaited release of Tiger’s Dream. There’s more to celebrate. We’re going to be doing fun things all month long as we get ready to share the end of the series with everyone. Pre-order your copy today because let me tell you, THERE ARE SPOILERS in this book. You do not want to be the last one to know what really happened to cause this curse. Love to you all!

Colleen

Tiger’s Dream Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries for the Tiger’s Dream contest!

Our three winners are:

 Emma G.

 Olivia C.

 Cassandra H.

Also, I listened to all the songs you guys suggested. It was really hard to narrow it down but here are the songs that will be added to the Tiger’s Dream playlist.

Take Me Home-Us the Duo

Let Her Go-Passenger

Need the Sun to Break-James Bay

Better-Syml

Find Me-Sigma featuring Birdy

I also have two runners up. They were…

Sleeping at Last-Heart

I found-Amber Run

A good number of you submitted Dress up the Cover entries as well! Here are some of my favorites!

Amazing right?! Don’t forget to check back in the first week of April for the YA Scavenger Hunt. If you didn’t win a book this time, there’s another chance during the hunt. And I have a monthly contest on Goodreads. All you have to do is ask a question on the monthly chat.

Congrats to the winners and keep hanging out with us as we celebrate all things tiger as we get ready to launch Tiger’s Dream!

Colleen

 

Word Clouds

Word Clouds

 

I’ve had a lot of fun playing with word clouds recently on a website called Tagul. I’ve been able to download my entire book into a program that looks for the most common words in the manuscript and then creates a word cloud for it. This just proves there is an app for pretty much everything.

It’s pretty cool to see what words rise to the forefront. I’ve kept these clouds pretty much intact and just threw out hyphenated words that don’t make sense and then moved the title of the book to the highest setting so you’d see that first.

 

Tiger’s Curse

I chose a tiger paw for this word cloud shape for obvious reasons. What’s interesting to me about this one is the fact that the gada ranked so high and that Phet is almost up there with Kelsey. Incidentally, the gada is the only weapon in the tiger series I’ve been able to find in the cloud. Black is bigger than white though Ren is more used than Kishan. Hair has been a word I’ve used a lot in the tiger series as well. This is the only one where I can find Fanindra and fruit which is interesting.

 

 

Tiger’s Quest

Even though I chose a tree shape for this word cloud I had to change the colors to match the book. I think an orange would have matched a bit better but the black is easier to see. I was shocked to see that Li is so much bigger than Artie. Artie has a weight to his character that I feel each time I read about him but I guess I didn’t showcase him as much as I thought. Bird is big in this one which makes sense and even though I didn’t add Tiger’s Quest on this one, tiger is still prominent. Date is bigger than black or white in this book and I like that love is an important word.

 

Tiger’s Voyage

For this one I used a water drop since water is a main feature of the book. There are a lot of words given equal amounts of weight here but what stands out to me are the words ship, boat, Wes, and water. Dragon is right up there which is appropriate and then there’s hand. I must do a lot of hand holding or touching in my books for the word hand to be so big. Again I added black just so you could see the words better. Oh and I noticed the word golden is easier to find than green or blue or red. The golden dragon is my favorite.

 

Tiger’s Destiny

I chose a flame to represent this book but the shape makes it harder to read all the words. Mr. is easy to find but I don’t see Kadam which is strange. Durga and Lokesh are both prominent and for some reason Li is back in there. Not sure why unless it just needed a short word to fill in. Kiss has been a word that pops up in each cloud which is appropriate. I can’t find Phoenix or Rakshasa. They must be too small for me to see. The green flames don’t seem natural but I wanted to match the colors of the book. 

Tiger’s Dream

I finally figured out I can add an image of my own so this time you get to see a tiger. Ana is the most used word in the manuscript which might give you a hint about the book. Of course, you see tiger, Kelsey, and Ren but a big one is the word man. This also makes a lot of sense when you read the book. Hand is huge here. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s due to the many hands of the goddess. I like blowing up these images and looking at all the tiny words. You’ll get a lot of spoilers that way. 

Tiger’s Promise

 I am exceptionally proud of Tiger’s Promise. If you haven’t read it because it’s a novella you need to ignore that and check it out anyway. Right now I’m writing a novella for the Reawakened series and if you skip that one you’re not going to understand the end of the series. Because it is a smaller book, the words are more easily found. I like that Rajaram is so big as is the word family. This is the first time Dhiren comes up instead of Ren. No black or white here since the princes aren’t tigers yet. Veil is a big theme in this book since Yesubai trains herself to veil her emotions and her father likes to hide her beauty behind veils. I like the words home, girl, and mother. Then you’ll see flower and garden and beautiful. Yesubai loves flowers. Prince is large and wish being a word I emphasized is pretty cool since this book has a lot to do with wishes.

 

Reawakened

For this one I chose a pyramid for the shape and added the word Reawakened so you’d know the title. Right away I noticed dark and light which is a theme I play with a lot in this book. Asten and Amon are pretty equal which surprises me. Ahmose is slightly smaller but that’s to be expected since he doesn’t appear until halfway through. Power shows up a lot which is different from the tiger series. I think Lily is about equal to Kelsey in mentions. This book, like the tiger books, are in first person, so Lily and Kelsey are the narrators which means their names aren’t used as often. I never realized before that Hassan and Kadam sound very similar. Interesting. And there’s hair again. Apparently, I have a thing for hair. 

 

Recreated

 For Recreated I chose a star to symbolize the book. You’ll notice that Asten features as prominently as Amon in this book. Heart and Eye are also very important. Arm and Head are coming up more frequently than Hand this time so not as much hand holding as I usually do. You’ll also notice Tia is very large. Tia is a new character you’ll be meeting in Recreated. Power is back and Feel is usually a big word for me. If you look really closely, you might find Horus in there somewhere. Nephthys and Isis make an appearance as well. Amun-Ra and Ma’at were kicked out due to punctuation, it seems but they are important in this book as well. Also there a character called the Devourer. The program only kept devour so you might see that but not her name. 

 REALIGNED

For the Realigned word cloud, I chose a tree since Osiris is the god of all growing things and the first kiss he shared with Isis was in a gazebo in his garden. You’ll see my characters prominent on the tree. Other important words are power, star, want and mortal. You’ll have to read the book to figure out why. Can you find the word sister? That’s a big one in this book as is heart.

REUNITED

With Reunited, I chose the shape of the full moon. This book belongs to the moon god, Ahmose but you can still spot Asten and Amon. Tia is much more of a prominent voice here than Lily or Ashleigh which is interesting. I really like the word ONE being so prominent. It’s a good representation of the book’s theme. What else can you find in here that hints of what will happen in the story?

 

Check back and I’ll add more books as we get ready to publish them!

The A, B, C’s of Tiger’s Dream

I’m not sure when I started this but it’s like a fun puzzle for me so I’ll probably keep doing it. Here are the A, B, C’s of Tiger’s Dream. I had to cheat a little on X and Z.

A-Anamika, Animal, Abandonment

B-Beach, Bird, Barbarian, Bond

C-Circus, Captive, Change

D-Dream, Death, Damon, Dragon

E-Eggshell, Embroidery, Emperor

F-Fanindra, Fasting, Family

G-Goddess, Grove, Goodbye

H-Hunt, Heartbreak, History, Honey Cakes

I-Immortality, Idyll, Illness

J-Jealousy, Jewelry, Journey

K-Kishan, Kelsey, Koi

L-Love, Loyalty, Lokesh

M-Maneater, Miracle, Mermaid

N-Necklace, Needle, Nomad, Nilima

O-Ointment, Opponent, Origin

P-Phet, Party, Princess, Promise, Phoenix

Q-Quest, Questions, Quiver, Qualms

R-Ren, Ravens, Rope, Revenge, Rajaram, Ring

S-Silk, Sacrifice, Scarf, Sculpt, Sohan, Sword

T-Tiger, Tree, Tokyo, Truth, Teacher, Torture

U-Uncertainty, Understanding, Unison

V-Villain, Vulnerable, Vessel

W-Wanderer, Wedding, Weapons

X-Exhilaration, Extinguish, Vortex

Y-Yesubai, Youth, Yacht

Z-Zealot, Zigzag, Puzzle

Let’s Talk the Tiger’s Dream Cover

I know you’ve been waiting…and waiting…and waiting…and Tiger’s Dream is finally just around the corner. So, on this blog post, I’m going to try to answer a few non-spoilery types of questions and talk about the brilliant cover too!

First of all…Why The Wait?

This is a fairly easy answer. My first imprint, Splinter, who published the rest of the tiger series, closed. What that means is, they are no longer purchasing new material to print. They are, however, still in the business of printing the other tiger books and continue to hold the rights to the series in the United States and Canada which made finishing the series doubly difficult. No other publisher wanted to pick up the last book in a series when someone else owned the others. Believe me when I say I tried. I really did. That left me with one option, self-publishing, which explains the cost of the paperback as well as why there isn’t a hardback, but I digress. That’s another blog post.

Now the self-publishing of Tiger’s Dream is only true in the United States. In Brazil, China, and other countries that have purchased the tiger books, Tiger’s Dream will be printed in the usual manner.

That explains the printing part, but now comes the waiting part. Because I signed a new contract with Delacorte to write the Reawakened series, I had to negotiate time between books to write Tiger’s Dream. It’s a slightly scary prospect for an author to begin an over 200,000 word project without a publisher attached. To that, all I have to say is…

 

 

I ended up writing Tiger’s Dream between Reunited and The Lantern’s Ember. Since The Lantern’s Ember is still being released at the one year mark from Reunited, you can be certain that I rarely slept in 2016 or 2017.

 

This means that while Ren and Kishan were my first loves, I finished Amon’s, Asten’s, and Ahmose’s series first. Hey there, that’s five swoonworthy young men. They would make the world’s most awesome boy band, don’t you think?

Moving on…

What’s Up With the Tiger’s Dream Cover?

Funny you should ask. As you know, most of my covers don’t have actual people on the cover. The only ones that do are Tiger’s Promise and Tiger’s Dream. And there’s a reason for that which I’ll talk more about below. Of all my books, I have been able to choose the cover for three of them, Tiger’s Promise, Tiger’s Dream, and Reignited.

 

Reignited was easy. I just had it matched to the other books in the series and told them to do a cool eyes, the goddesses at the bottom, and then chose the color palette. One really cool thing about the Reawakened covers is that the color of either the title or my name at the top indicates the color of the next book released in the series. This is a really pretty set when you look at all the covers.

 

With Tiger’s Promise, I couldn’t put a magical creature on the cover since there weren’t any in the book. Except koi. There are koi fish on the cover, but not in a prominent place. Who’d pick up a book with a gaping mouthed koi fish on the cover? Besides, the story wasn’t about the koi, who make a comeback appearance in Tiger’s Dream by the way, it was about Yesubai. It felt wrong not to put her on the cover.

Since the publisher, Splinter, wanted to focus on the eyes with each cover, I thought it fitting to emphasize Yesubai’s eyes. If you want to read more about the Tiger’s Promise cover and the symbolism behind it, you can read the BLOG POST I wrote about it a few years ago.

When it came time to sketch out the Tiger’s Dream cover, I went back to the artist who did all the other tiger books, Cliff Nielsen. I told him about the book and he came up with some really cool designs.

Early Designs for the Tiger’s Dream Cover

We knew we wanted to match the other books so the first thing we came up with was a cover featuring Fanindra. I love the idea of that and seeing her on the cover would have been extremely beautiful. Ultimately I passed on that one since the book isn’t really about Fanindra even though Tiger’s Dream does explain Fanindra’s origins and does spotlight her in a cool way.

The next cover image sprung entirely from Cliff’s imagination. I have spent far too many moments studying this piece and it is a work of art. I would have LOVED to have a finished image to keep in my collection. It’s a mashup of Fanindra and Kishan’s tiger side. It’s amazing! It was my hubby’s favorite and it was so hard saying no to this one.

Finally, we took a look at Cliff’s drawing with people on the cover. Why people, you might wonder, instead of tigers? Firstly, I already have books with tigers on the covers. Also, I wanted to show readers that the curse has been broken, that they finally get to be men. Additionally, I wanted this book to be something very different from the rest.

I chose this drawing and ended up with this amazing cover!

Okay, But What About Those Models?

You all have been asking me for years about who was my inspiration for Ren and Kishan. You send pictures, links, and pins for me to peruse and I have to tell you all straight up that I have NEVER found anyone, model or actor, who exactly fits the bill. But, because I chose to put Kishan and Anamika on the cover, I had to look through pages of models. I know. You’re thinking poor me! Yes, it’s one of the perks of the job. It’s research, I tell my hubby. Research! Now, move along. (Hubby narrows brows and backs away slowly)

Now, where were we. Ah, models. So these two. Gorgeous, aren’t they? Once I described the characters of Kishan and Anamika, Cliff sent me a group of about twelve to fifteen male models to look through and both of us were immediately drawn to Sharif Dean. I believe Cliff put it best when he said that Sharif had the smolder. I agreed. It’s true that Sharif is Armenian/Italian and not Indian/Chinese but he was absolutely the best choice in the group.

Here’s the picture that made me a believer. It was the arms…the abs…gah! No, I mean the eyes. Seriously, it was the eyes in the shot of him below in the white shirt. They were like my black tiger’s eyes staring back at me.

And for those of you coming to the pre-launch party, you’ll get to meet him!

You can follow Sharif on Twitter @Shar_Dean or check out his model profile on Model Mayhem.

 

 

Anamika was much easier. There were several beautiful Indian women to choose from but I chose Ayushi Chhabra. She’s not only lovely but she seems to radiate power and confidence. A bit like Wonder Woman, I suppose.

You can follow Ayushi on Instagram @ayushi_mehr or check out her model profile on Brand Model and Talent.

What’s on the Cover?

To help, I’ve made you a graphic to explain all the cool things about the cover.

To tell you more is to give away too much of the book. Ooh except one I forgot. The light surrounding the amulet, just behind the sword symbolizes the theme for this book. I’ll give you a hint. Curse was the earth book, Quest was air, Voyage was water, and Destiny was fire. In Indian mythology there are five elements. You can look it up if you like. Also, if you recall, there were five pillars in the first temple Ren and Kelsey went to in Tiger’s Curse. One had been destroyed. A reread of the series is highly recommended before you start reading Tiger’s Dream.

There you have it. If you have more questions regarding the Tiger’s Dream cover, you can either leave a comment on the blog post or you can ask on the

Tiger’s Dream Q & A on Goodreads.

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

Tiger’s Dream Contest and Events

It’s that time once again. I have a book being released and there’s always a slew of fun things that go along with that. For those of you who like to follow those things and/or want a chance to get your hands on a copy of the book early, we will be doing a massive giveaway!

Instead of doing a contest month by month, we’ve decided to do one giant, mega contest. So, the one contest we love more than any other, is the Dress up the Cover contest. To have a chance of winning a VIP Swag bag, along with an early copy of Tiger’s Dream, all you have to do is tweet your graphic to @colleenhouck. Here’s mine if you need an example.

Here are a few others to give you some more ideas…

For more chances to win, we’re also doing a rafflecopter which you’ll find at the end of this post, including an option to add your favorite songs to the Tiger’s Dream playlist.

Next up is the list of dates for all things Tiger’s Dream!

Wednesday-January 24th-Contest Opens

Wednesday-January 31st-Tiger’s Dream Cover Blog

Tuesday-February 6th-The A, B, C’s of Tiger’s Dream

Monday-February 12th-The Tiger’s Dream Pinterest Board is released

Friday-February 16th-The Top Ten Things You’ll See in Tiger’s Dream Video

Thursday-February 22nd-The Tiger’s Dream Word Cloud is released

Tuesday-February  27th-Pre-Launch Party in Salem, OR

Monday-March 5th-The Tiger’s Dream Party Post

Friday-March 9th-The Tiger’s Dream Playlist is revealed along with winning songs

March 12th-30th-The Tiger’s Dream Cosplay Tour. More details to come.

May 1st–Goodreads Q & A

Don’t want to risk it? Preorder a copy of Tiger’s Dream today.

 

OK everyone, remember your chances to win increase the more items you complete on the Rafflecopter! Three lucky winners will be randomly selected! Good luck!!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Lantern’s Ember

Hello Readers!

I’m bringing you something special today, it’s the cover reveal for The Lantern’s Ember. I have been in love with Halloween since I was a kid. It probably started because my birthday is in October and I really love chocolate, so that month has always been an exiting one for me. My whole house is decorated for Halloween.

As you can see, I tend to go a little overboard. Kids would drive into our neighborhood from all over the city since our whole area is super fun at Halloween. Kids who come to my house get full size candy bars and the kids older than twelve get a book of their choice. Most still prefer tigers over mummies, even at Halloween.

Now that you know that about me, it isn’t much of a stretch to think I might someday write a Halloween story. My favorite Halloween story of all time is the Headless Horseman and not the gory one but the cartoon version. The working title was Jack, as in Jack O’ The Lantern and Jack is the name of my main character. This book has pretty much everything Halloween you can think of–black cats, cauldrons, witches, pumpkins, mad scientists, werewolves, vampires, pirates, Frankenstein, skeletons, spiders, ghosts, the Loch Ness monster and probably a few other things I’m forgetting right now.

I’m so excited for you to read this story and go on this adventure with me. It’s not ready to preorder yet, but it will be soon. I’ll make sure to put up the links as soon as I can.

Here’s the official book description…

THE LANTERN’S EMBER

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare. 

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

Are you ready for it? Here’s the cover!

And there you have it. What’s your favorite thing about Halloween?

Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New!

It’s that time of year when I celebrate a milestone. Not only have I published two books this year, my 8th and 9th, but I have two coming in 2018. Tiger’s Dream is finally coming in March and then in the fall, my retelling of the headless horseman story, The Lantern’s Ember, my 11th book, will be released on September 11th.

2017 was a good year!

  

2018 will be even better!

  

As cool as that is, it’s not the milestone I’m talking about. For the first time ever, I met my Goodreads goal of reading 125 books! I read 100 in 2015 and 2016 but I decided to push myself and I’m so proud to accomplish that goal. It was a tough one and I think 125 is going to end up being my max. I wish I could do more! There’s not enough time to read all the books on my wish list.

For those of you looking for a last minute gift, here are my picks for best reads of the year. Now, understand, some of these books were not released in 2017. It just happens that I read them this year. I’ve got four lists for you-Book Boyfriends, Cover Love, Best Reads, and my TBR list for next year.

BOOK BOYFRIENDS

If you, like me, enjoy reading swoonworthy guys, here are my picks this year. My list includes:

Deven from POISON’S KISS by Breeana Shields

Rafael from DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY by Brodi Ashton

Elijah from HOW TO HANG A WITCH by Adriana Mather

Kadesh from FORBIDDEN by Kimberley Little

Sebastian from THE WISH GRANTER by C. J. Redwine

Dane from BLOOD AND SALT by Kim Liggett

Zane from THE THIRD TWIN by CJ Omololu

Prince Christian from PRINCESS OF GLASS by Jessica Day George

Mathias from ZODIAC by Romina Russell

Riley from LEGION by Julie Kagawa

BOOK COVERS

DARK BREAKS THE DAWN by Sara B. Larson

RISE OF FIRE by Sophie Jordan

POISON’S KISS by Breeana Shields

A CROWN OF WISHES by Roshani Chokshi

RETRIBUTION RAILS by Erin Bowman

LONG MAY SHE REIGN by Rhiannon Thomas

THE CONJURER’S RIDDLE by Andrea Cremer

FLAME IN THE MIST by Renee Ahdieh

THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR by Katharine Mcgee

THE LAST MAGICIAN by Lisa Maxwell

MY FAVORITE READS OF 2017

THE WINNER’S CURSE by Marie Rutkoski

DARK BREAKS THE DAWN by Sara B. Larson

SALT TO THE SEA by Ruta Sepetys

RETRIBUTION RAILS by Erin Bowman

POISON’S KISS by Breeana Shields

PAWN by Aimee Carter

HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer

FLAME IN THE MIST by Renee Ahdieh

THE WISH GRANTER by C. J. Redwine

THE QUEEN OF BLOOD by Sarah Beth Durst

MY PLAIN JANE by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

REAPER AT THE GATES by Sabaa Tahir

REIGN THE EARTH by A. C. Gaugen

DANCE OF THIEVES by Mary E. Pearson

LEGENDARY by Stephanie Garber

INFERNO by Julie Kagawa

EVERLESS by Sara Holland

THE TRAITOR PRINCE by C. J. Redwine

POISON’S CAGE by Breeana Shields

RESTORE ME by Tahereh Mafi

SKY IN THE DEEP by Adrienne Young

GUNSLINGER GIRL by Lyndsay Ely

SHATTER by Aprilynne Pike

THE FATES DIVIDE by Veronica Roth

THE QUEEN OF SORROW by Sarah Beth Durst

OBSIDIO by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

THE BELLES by Dhonielle Clayton

ASH PRINCESS by Laura Sebastian

UNEARTHED by Aime Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

CONTAGION by Erin Bowman

These are just the first twenty I’ve found but, rest assured, I have a lot more books on my TBR list than just these.

I am very much looking forward to 2018 and I hope you are too. Give the gift of reading this season and don’t forget, the best present you can give an author is a review and adding their next book to your “to be read” pile. It costs nothing but it means so much.

Have a happy and safe holiday season. Love and hugs to you all!

Colleen