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Jul 23, 2013

Blog Tour: Book Review and Giveaway: Nearly Broken by Devon Ashley

July 23, 2013 0 Comments

Hi everyone! It seems that I haven't posted a review for a very long time but worry no more because I am back with a new blog tour! Welcome to my stop on the Nearly Broken blog tour hosted by YA Bound Book Tours.  Click HERE to see the full blog tour schedule!



Book Blurb:

We’d both gone missing at one point, but Claire had one thing I didn't. Someone to notice. So why was I the one still here and she the one still gone?

Nineteen year old Megan Smith has spent the past year working in a small town diner in the middle of nowhere. Life is quiet, simple, safe. Then comes the news that her look-a-like has gone missing.

Claire.

Still damaged both physically and mentally, Megan's not looking to be noticed. Wherever she goes from here, it's a road she needs to take alone. But when Nickolas Ellis takes the job as the new night shift cook, it scares her how easily her defenses crumble down, down, down for him. But there are secrets she can't bear to share with just anyone, unspeakable acts that continue to haunt, and when the similarities of Claire’s abduction couples with the fear of an unwanted visitor in town, the urge to run before it all happens again intensifies, threatening the only happiness Megan's ever found.

New Adult Romantic Suspense / Realistic Fiction
Recommended for 17+ for mature and disturbing situations, language and sexual content.

My Thoughts:

Nearly Broken is the first work of Ms. Devon Ashley I've ever read and I must say that I'm impressed. It's the kind of book that keeps a reader on her seat and lost inside of it. It's the kind of book that keeps a reader thinking and guessing and feeling, the one that a reader puts in her keeper shelf.

I'm not going to put anything in my review other that what I think and feel about the book. I can't put anymore than what was written in the blurb because I think there's a reason why it's as vague as it could be. I went in and read this book as blind as a bat about it's plot and I must say it's the best decision I've made. 

Plot wise, I think it's a winner! Ms. Devon Ashley wrote this book in a very precise manner. Giving details when it's needed but never giving the whole plot in one go. I really liked it because it's new and the mystery kept me so engrossed in it that I can't put it down at all.

The characters are all interesting. I can't help but empathize with what they were going through. Megan and Nick are simply amazing. Megan went through something horrific and because of it she's guarded and paranoid and she doesn't trust easily. She's ready to flee at any moment. Nick, ah dear Nick! Well, he's simply the man who any woman would be lucky to have! He's protective of Megan. He is patient and so understanding. He loves her with everything he has and that is something every girl dreams of having.

The pace of the novel was great. The flow of the story was smooth. It wasn't too rushed and it didn't drag which is very nice. The mysteries were given out in a perfect timing.

Overall, I absolutely LOVED this book! I can't think of any flaw at all. And I cannot wait to read the next book! Ms. Devon Ashley is definitely on my list of authors to watch out for! If you love a book that will keep your brains turning and your heart in a turmoil of emotions, you should definitely get this book because this one will blow your minds!





Purchase at:

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Author Bio:

Devon Ashley was born in Huntington Beach but has spent most of her life residing in Texas. She spends a great deal of her time taking care of her husband and son but always seems to find time to write, knit and create unique decorative pieces. She particularly likes to write Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance.


Interesting Fact: Devon Ashley shares her birthday with her favorite author, Jane Austen.

Author Links:
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***GIVEAWAY***

2 signed Paperbacks and 2 e-Books (epub or mobi) of Nearly Broken. Open Internationally!


Jul 3, 2013

Book Excerpt and Kindle Giveaway: Zombie, Incorporated by Jill Elaine Hughes

July 03, 2013 0 Comments


Hi everyone! I'm here today to feature a really interesting book entitled Zombie, Incorporated by Jill Elaine Hughes. You all will get a peek inside this book. Plus, there's a giveaway waiting for all of you down below! So, let's get this started. 

Title: Zombie, Incorporated 
Author: Jill Elaine Hughes 
Publication Date: March 25th 2013 
Genre: New Adult (zombie adventure fantasy)

Book Blurb:

Twilight. With zombies.

Eighteen-year-old Katie Allred is socially awkward and unpopular at school. The only child of parents who had her right out of high school, Katie is herself about to leave the nest, even though she hardly feels ready. 

Katie’s new after-school job at the Zimble Box Corporation draws her into the complex social strata of high school cliques and backstabbing friends in ways she never imagined. Katie soon discovers there’s something very strange about the “in” crowd at school---and about her employer, too. Shortly after starting her new job, the Contagion breaks out, plunging her town and the entire nation into chaos as zombie shadow forces come out into the open, ravaging the streets. Katie goes into hiding and her parents disappear, along with almost everyone else she knows. 

But Katie soon discovers she has special powers that help her survive. She’s a Beacon, someone with the innate ability to help zombies produce children. It’s a power her employer — and what little remains of the U.S. government — both want to exploit for their own ends. Not only that, it runs in her family---which has a secret past Katie never knew about until now.

Enter Agent Morehouse of the FBI Special Zombie Control Unit. A reformed zombie working undercover, he suppresses his urge to eat human flesh in order to serve and save humanity. But Agent Morehouse can’t help but be attracted to a Beacon like Katie, and she to him. Even as they fight zombies the world over, they must fight their intense attraction to each other, hoping to keep Katie from suffering  Agent Morehouse’s terrible zombie fate.

Goodreads: 

Book Excerpt:

        I froze. Nobody had ever kissed me before. I didn't know what to do. I’d often wondered what my first kiss would be like.  (Yeah, I was eighteen and never been kissed. Talk about a late bloomer). And you can sure as hell bet that I never once would have guessed that my first kiss ever (especially with tongue) would come courtesy of Steve Bosch, the most popular guy at school at an exclusive invitation-only party at Lily Carmichael’s house.
Wow, I had hit the ‘in’ crowd jackpot. This really was too good to be true.  All I could think about was what I might have done to bring this incredible chain of events about—and I was totally at a loss.
       So we made out on the bean bag for a few minutes. I was scared at first, but Steve was really sweet and patient, and eventually I seemed to get the hang of things.  I relaxed a bit and even let my mouth open a little so Steve could get his tongue all the way inside.  I didn't really tongue him back, just let him explore my mouth as he liked and enjoyed the sensations.  My whole body felt warm and tingly, and I started breathing hard.  I remembered from our Sex Ed unit in Health Class that this was all normal when it came to this sort of thing, but I’d never really made out with a boy before, so it still felt strange.
Wonderfully strange.        But when Steve reached under my blouse to grab my boobs, I put on the brakes.  I pulled away from him abruptly and turned to face the wall. “I’d rather you didn't do that,” I heard myself say.        Steve bit his lip and looked sheepish.  “Sorry,” he said in a small voice. “I thought you would like it.”      I shrugged. “Maybe next time.” I tried to sound nonchalant, like I made that kind of remark to hot popular boys trying to feel me up every other day or something, but I just ended up sounding stupid.But Steve seemed to take it in stride. “That’s cool,” he said. “I like a girl who takes her time with things.” He reached over and patted me softly on the back of the hand. “Do you want another beer? Or maybe some food? If you’re hungry I can go see what they have.”
 
     This day just got weirder and weirder.  Just when I thought Steve was going to ditch me and find some other more attractive and popular girl to make out with, he started waiting on me hand and foot. And I was sort of hungry. I’d forgotten my lunch money that day at school so I’d only eaten a few leftover tater tots from somebody else’s plate since breakfast. “Sure, I’ll eat something,” I said.          “Cool. What do you like to eat?”
I shrugged again. “Oh, anything I guess. I’m not picky.”
Steve smiled again and left the room, giving my shoulder an affectionate squeeze first. I glanced around the room and saw that most of the other necking couples had disappeared, and the loud music that had been blaring from somewhere in the house when we arrived was gone, too. Plus the room seemed a lot darker than before. I glanced out the only window and saw that the sun was almost down. 
Gee, time really flies when you’re having fun, I thought to myself with a chuckle. I glanced at my watch and saw that almost two hours had passed while Steve and I were sucking face. Boy, no wonder people were so into making out—it was more entertaining than going to the movies.
I unwedged myself from the beanbag and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. How long had I been there, exactly? And what had happened to everybody else? God only knew where Stacey had disappeared to, or if she was even still here at all. I thought about going off to look for her, but then how would Steve find me when he came back with the food?  Would Steve come back at all?  Or was he just messing with my head and this whole thing was some sort of sick joke perpetrated by the popular kids onto lowlifes with no social standing like me?
Just as I was weighing the merits of sticking around to see what happened next versus making a mad dash for home, Steve reappeared, carrying two Styrofoam dinner plates. “There wasn't much left,” he said. 
“Looks like we missed most of the good stuff while we were, um, you know.”He handed me my plate, and reached around to take two more beers that he’d stuffed in his back jeans pockets. It was the same beer as last time—Busch Light— but the food was, well, not like anything I’d ever seen before.
Purchase Links:

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Author Bio:
I'm an independent author of New Adult (mature YA, 18-26) fiction as well as a full-time freelance journalist based in Chicago. I've contributed to the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Chicago Reader and many magazines as a journalist over the past 15 years.  And like most New Adult fiction authors these days, I've gone the self-publishing route for my work since most publishers haven't caught up to the readership trends in this emerging shelf category. My writing is usually laced with humor and also often has sexual and/or dystopian elements.

Author Links:

Giveaway:
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Book Excerpt and Giveaway: Losing Francesca by J. A. Huss

July 03, 2013 0 Comments

Losing Francesca By J. A. Huss
Expected Publication: July 1, 2013
Genre: Mature Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Francesca Sabatini came to America to take in the sights, celebrate her high school graduation, and have fun wasting time before college starts in the fall.

That’s not what happens.

Fresh off the plane and barely on American soil more than a handful of minutes, Francesca’s face is recognized by TSA scanners to be a match for a child who was kidnapped twelve years ago.

Brody Mason remembers the day Fiona Sullivan went missing during a family vacation in Italy and it’s haunted him his whole life. So when Francesca shows up at the Sullivan farm down the road, he’s compelled to figure out if this girl really is his long lost friend.

But Francesca knows she’s not Fiona Sullivan. She knows exactly who she is. At least she thinks she knows – until Brody Mason relentlessly pursues her and she begins to have feelings for him. Maybe being Fiona isn’t so bad?

Reality becomes blurred, secrets are revealed, and life will never be the same when the final questions are answered: Is she Francesca or Fiona? And where does she really belong?

Losing Francesca is a YA/NA crossover contemporary romance. :)









What people are saying about Losing Francesca by J.A. Huss!


"A 'you must drop everything and read this' kind of story." - Author Alexia Purdy @ http://alexiaepurdy.blogspot.com/


"...this book is so sweet and full of emotions and I loved it. I couldn't stop reading." - Lola @ Lola's Reviews!

"This. Was. Great!!!!! It was amazing! I loved it!" - Kimberly @ Kimberly's Novel Notes!








I lie back on the beach and put my hands behind my head. "So, we're gonna spend the whole summer hanging out and I'm not allowed to get to know you even in the most basic and simple ways? Is that how this is gonna go, Fee?"

She lies back next to me and turns on her side, her eyes searching mine. "Why do you insist that I am her? I'm not her, Brody. This fact will hurt you if you don't accept it and I don't want to hurt you. You're nice, I like you, but I'm not that girl."

"I want you to be her." I tell her truthfully. "I so, so want you to be her, Francesca. I cannot even explain how much I want to talk to her again. How much I want to tell her about all the days we never shared, to tell her that I thought of her at the end of every single one of them and that I prayed to God for years, every night, on my fucking knees, that she'd come back. I want to give her the Fruit Roll-Up I brought to school that first day back after summer vacation. That stupid Fruit Roll-Up that I still have hidden away, because I had this faith as a kid. This unwavering faith that only a kid can have that one day my friend would be back. And when she finally showed up, I'd give her that stupid snack to show her how much I missed her. And to prove myself to her. Because that little girl was my soulmate."

She frowns so deep it makes me hold my breath.

"I'm sorry," I say, turning my head to stare up at the sky. "I shouldn't tell you this stuff, I'm sorry." I'm projecting, that's what I'm doing. I want Francesca to be my Fee so bad I'm starting to believe it myself, even as she sits here and tells me straight up she's not her.

Her hand touches my cheek and I look back over.

"You can ask me one question, but it can't be about my other life."

I laugh. "What good does that do me?"

"Well, you can ask about things, but not my family, or school, or the places I've lived."

"Give me a for example, because I'm not seeing the difference."

She sighs and turns away, biting on her thumbnail a little. "OK," she says, turning back. "For example, I'll ask you the first question and you answer, then I'll answer the same question for you."

I smile.

She chews on her bottom lip this time. Clearly she is nervous. "All right, tell me about the best day of your life."

I sit up and stare down at her. "The best day of my life?"

She nods.

"Today, Fee. The best day of my life is today."








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JA Huss is a SF and new adult romance junkie, has a love-hate relationship with the bad boys, and likes to write new adult books about people with real problems. She lives with her family on a small acreage farm in Colorado and has two donkeys named Paris and Nicole. Before writing fiction, she authored almost two hundred science workbooks and always has at least three works in progress. Losing Francesca is her first young adult romance.

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