Monday, January 30, 2017

The Odds of You and Me and Q & A with author Cecilia Galante


THE ODDS OF YOU AND ME
 by CECILIA GALANTE
January 31, 2017
Genre: Women's Fiction/Coming of Age
ISBN 9780062434852 |E-book ISBN 9780062434869
$14.99



A talented and versatile author, CECILIA GALANTE’S YA novel The Patron Saint of Butterflies was made a Teen Read Selection by OPRAH.  In THE ODDS OF YOU AND ME (February 1, 2017; ISBN 9780062434852; $14.99), GALANTEconsiders the unvarnished reality of a young woman struggling to overcome her own mistakes, and the sexism and abuse that shockingly shape her reality in ways no young woman ever expects will become a part of her life.

In THE ODDS OF YOU AND ME we meet Bernadette, “Bird,” Sincavage, determined to escape the injuries and errors of the past to create a new life for herself and her four-year-old son, Angus.


Bird has a mere thirteen days to go before being free of probation. Free from making payments to the supermarket where she wrote bad checks. Free from living at home with her overzealous mother who’s constantly nagging her about attending church again. Free to finally create the normal life Angus deserves. Bird’s impending move to Moon Lake, where she’s plunked down a deposit on a brand new apartment, is so close she can almost taste it.  What could possibly go wrong in less than two weeks?

But before her probation is up, a force from Bird’s past—a potent symbol of the people and circumstances that have irrevocably shaped her adult life, comes storming to the fore in the form of one James Rittenhouse.

Bird is stunned to see James being arrested on the evening news for assaulting someone in a local bar. She is even more shocked to later discover him hiding out in an abandoned church choir loft. Somehow he escaped police custody, broke his leg, and got his hand on a gun—which he’s now pointing at her.

Bird doesn’t dare tell anyone she saw James, and there’s no way she’s helping him. She can’t screw up her probation or her second chance for a new future. And she has her son’s welfare to think about.  Still, Bird struggles to forget the terrified look in James’ eyes and the fact that he’s hurt.  James once defended her fearlessly when she needed him most, and it’s nearly impossible to forget his life saving intervention, or how he put himself in harm’s way to come to her rescue. 

Bird simply can’t cast aside all that James has done for her, and thus capitulates to secretly assisting him as he remains a fugitive hidden inside the church.  Despite the dark clouds that gather, threatening Bird’s freedom and the future she has struggled so hard to establish for herself and her child—doing the right thing may lead indirectly to a redemption sweeter than anything she could have ever dreamed.

In THE ODDS OF YOU AND ME, with empathy and searing truth, CECILIA GALANTE brings a poignant tale about what it means to be well-intentioned yet misunderstood.  In Bird Sincavage we find an indefatigable young woman who thwarts the judgment of a mother who simply can’t wrap her head around her daughter’s life; a young woman who, with the aid of an unexpected ally, ultimately conquers the odds to find her own happiness. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
CECILIA GALANTE, who received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont, is the author of six young adult novels and a children’s chapter-book series. She has been the recipient of many awards, including an NAIBA Best Book of the Year, and an Oprah’s Teen Read Selection for her first novel, The Patron Saint of Butterflies.

She lives in Kingston, Pennsylvania with her three children.
  

In Conversation with Cecilia Galante

Cecilia Galante ap1 
1                 Did you learn anything new or surprising while writing your latest book?

I did, actually. The most obvious were all the strange facts I researched for James’ Curious Facts and Data book. Sometimes research for a book can be tedious, but the incredible information I uncovered for this one, including how the human heart beats more than 100,000 times a day, and that there is an actual name for the metallic way the air smells after it rains, were so interesting that it never felt like work. It was just so much fun!


2                How would you say the landscape in which you grew up (i.e. the region, culture, family) has shaped you as a writer? 

I always sigh a bit when I get this question because I know I’ll have to go into a lot of strange detail about my somewhat unusual background (born into and raised in a fanatically religious cult for the first fifteen years of my life in upstate New York) but I’ve also learned that sometimes it’s is not the physical place or the culture that shapes people who end up writing – it’s the books along the way. At least that was true for me. I’d be errant if I said that growing up without a solid relationship to my parents has influenced several storylines in my books, (including this most recent one) but I’m also pretty sure I became a writer because my eleventh-grade English teacher, who may have noticed that I was a little bit out of my element, having just moved from the cult into the “real world,” left a copy ofThe Catcher in the Rye on my desk.
I read the novel in a day, finishing the last chapter inside the school’s bathroom stall, weeping uncontrollably. In a world where almost nothing made any sense, here was someone who told the truth – no matter how ugly or scary or funny it was – without worrying whether or not others would stop loving him if he did. Was that how things worked out here? Were we really allowed to write and say things that might make us look weak or even downright crazy? Because if it was, I knew that day, that it was all I ever wanted to do with the rest of my life. And it still is.


3                What is the difference between a fleeting idea you have for a book, which you eventuallyforget or discard, and one that gets you putting pen to paper, so to speak? 

I’m not sure if there is a difference between the two. I’d say it’s more of a seed and soil analogy; almost all of my ideas that have eventually led me to the page have always started off as a fleeting thought of some sort. Sometimes it’s not even an idea; it’s just a character who has found herself in a ridiculously interesting situation. That might be the glimmer of the idea. The one that gets to the page is the one that keeps on glimmering, day after day, week after week, until it gets so bright you’ve got to put the damn thing down before you go blind.


4                Who or what inspires your characters? Do you have a particular type of character that fascinates you? 

If I admitted to all the people I’ve known over the years who have influenced a character of mine in some way, I’d probably get in a lot of trouble! I’ve rarely based a character completely off someone I know; the process is more of an organic one, in which I start off thinking of someone and then watch as the character flourishes into someone in her own right. It happens like that all the time, and it always amazes me when it does, because the finished character is almost nothing like the original one I had in my head. The process is just incredible.
As for characters that fascinate me, I’d have to say the angry ones. Or more accurately, the ones that aren’t afraid to be angry or piss people off. I LOVE writing characters like that, probably because I am the polar opposite of them. It’s freeing to live vicariously through someone else for a while, even if it’s just on the page.


5                What is the best piece of advice you have received that has influenced you as an author?

Best advice I’ve ever received as a writer: Sit down and write.
Best advice I’ve ever received as an author: Don’t take no for an answer.


6                What is the most important thing you want readers to take away from your book?

Probably what I discovered while writing it: that God and parents and everything that goes with them are nothing without love.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Pre-Order Contest - Don't Speak by Katy Regnery




Don't move.


Don't breathe.

DON'T SPEAK.

preorder now!






Blurb:

Swoon. Sigh. Beautiful, gorgeous love story. You renew my faith in true love, Katy Regnery. And a brilliant take off on the little mermaid. People are going to love this one." --Mia Sheridan, New York Times bestselling author of Archer's Voice

From New York Times bestseller Katy Regnery comes a new twist on a beloved fairytale.

In this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, a fisherman's daughter from an Outer Banks island untouched by time, meets the son of the North Carolina governor at a fancy party where she is working.

Laire, who wants more from life than her little island can offer, is swept away by wealthy, sophisticated Erik, who is, in turn, entranced by her naiveté and charm. The two spend a whirlwind summer together that ends on the knife-point of heartbreak and forces them to go their separate ways.

Years later, when fate finds them together once again, they will discover the terrifying depth of the secrets they kept from each other, and learn that shattered hearts can only be healed by a love that willfully refuses to die.

All novels in Katy Regnery’s ~a modern fairytale~ collection are written as fundraisers. 10% of the e-book sales for in March and April 2017 will be donated.



    

ENTER THE PREORDER CONTEST: https://goo.gl/forms/6nrbCWY27HJwoCGy2


Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/G-dQC9j_Zas


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Cover Reveal - A Boy Like You by Ginger Scott



Today I am honored and excited to share the cover of A Boy Like You, a novel by Ginger Scott. A Boy Like You is a Young Adult Contemporary Sports Romance and is the first in a Duet. 

It is coming March 3, 2017



They say everyone’s a superhero to someone. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to save, but I know who saved me.

We were kids. His name was Christopher. And up until the day he pulled me from death’s grip, he was nothing more than a boy I felt sorry for. In a blink of an eye, he became the only person who made me feel safe.

And then he disappeared.

Now I’m seventeen. I’m not a kid anymore. I haven’t been for years. While death didn’t take me that day, the things that happened left me with scars—the kind that robbed me of everything I once loved and drove me into darkness. But more than anything else, that day—and every day since has taken away my desire to dream.

I wasn’t going to have hope. I wouldn’t let myself wish. Those things—they weren’t for girls like me. That’s what I believed…until the new boy.

He’s nothing like the old boy. He’s taller and older. His hair is longer, and his body is lean—strong and ready for anything. I don’t feel sorry for him. And sometimes, I hate him. He challenges me. From the moment I first saw him standing there on the baseball field, he pushed me—his eyes constantly questioning, doubting…daring. Still, something about him—it feels…familiar.

He says his name is Wes. But I can’t help but feel like he’s someone else. Someone from my past. Someone who’s come back to save me.

This time, though, he’s too late. Josselyn Winters, the girl he once knew, is gone. I am the threat; I am my worst enemy. And he can’t save me from myself.


PURCHASE LINKS:





Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice Award-nominated author of several young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, The Girl I Was Before, Wild Reckless, Wicked Restless, In Your Dreams, The Hard Count, and Hold My Breath.

A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.

When she's not writing, the odds are high that she's somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork 'em, Devils).

Social Media Links:
Twitter: @TheGingerScott







Tuesday, January 24, 2017

You're Going Down - Lori's Review of Long Way Home by Katie McGarry + Blog Tour

LONG WAY HOME - Tour banner    

The highly anticipated third book in Katie McGarry’s Thunder Road Series is being released on January 31st! LONG WAY HOME is a Young Adult Contemporary Romance being published by Harlequin Teen! Pre-order your copy of the next book in this emotionally charged series, and don’t miss Violet and Chevy’s story! Check out all of the stops on this awesome tour and be sure to pre-order your copy for the amazing bonus scenes!

    LongWayHome-cover
LONG WAY HOME Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Violet has always been expected to sit back and let the boys do all the saving.

It’s the code her father, a member of the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, raised her to live by. Yet when her dad is killed carrying out Terror business, Violet knows it’s up to her to do the saving. To protect herself, and her vulnerable younger brother, she needs to cut all ties with the club—including Chevy, the boy she’s known and loved her whole life.

But when a rival club comes after Violet, exposing old secrets and making new threats, she’s forced to question what she thought she knew about her father, the Reign of Terror, and what she thinks she wants. Which means re-evaluating everything: love, family, friends . . . and forgiveness.

Caught in the crosshairs between loyalty and freedom, Violet must decide whether old friends can be trusted—and if she’s strong enough to be the one person to save them all.

LONG WAY HOME Pre-Order Links:

Amazon | Kobo | BAM | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

   
"An intoxicating and unforgettable story that kept me glued to the page."
Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on Walk the Edge

Add it to your Goodreads Now!

     

Don’t Miss the First Two Titles in the Thunder Road Series! Grab your copies today!

NOWHERE BUT HERE

WALK THE EDGE

Pre-order LONG WAY HOME by Katie McGarry, and fill out THIS FORM, to receive three previously unreleased bonus scenes featuring important “firsts” in the lives of your favorite characters from the world of Katie McGarry! Complete the form to register your pre-order at https://wyng.com/campaign/820152. Offer Ends 1/31/17 at 11:59pm EST.

     
Katie McGarry’s LONG WAY HOME – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:
January 23rd
Aaly and The Books – Review & Excerpt
Angel Reads – Review
Books,Dreams,Life – Excerpt
Feed Your Fiction Addiction – Review & Excerpt
Girl Plus Books – Review & Excerpt
Letter Shelves Blog – Review & Excerpt
The Book Hammock – Review & Excerpt
January 24th
Book Boyfriend Reviews – Review & Excerpt
Ficwishes – Review
Lovin' Los Libros – Review
Zach's YA Reviews – Review & Excerpt
January 25th
Always YA at Heart – Review & Excerpt
Bridget's Book Bungalow – Review & Excerpt
Mythical Books – Excerpt
Swoony Boys Podcast – Review & Excerpt
January 26th
A Bookish Escape – Review & Excerpt
Book Sojourner – Review & Excerpt
Crazii Bitches Book Blog – Review & Excerpt
Dark Faerie Tales – Review & Excerpt
January 27th
Bookshelf Adventures – Review & Excerpt
Little Read Riding Hood – Review & Excerpt
Nerdy Soul – Review & Excerpt
Random Book Muses – Review & Excerpt
Writing My Own Fairy Tale – Review & Excerpt
January 28th
Zili in the Sky – Review & Excerpt
Greyland Reviews – Excerpt
Chasing Faerytales – Review
January 29th
Book Angel Booktopia – Review & Excerpt
BookWorm221 – Review & Excerpt
Confessions of 2 Book Lovers – Review & Excerpt
Milky Way of Books – Review & Excerpt
January 30th
Margie's Must Reads – Review & Excerpt
Oh My Growing TBR – Review & Excerpt
Readers Live A Thousand Lives – Review & Excerpt
So Bookalicious – Review & Excerpt
January 31st
Desert Divas Book Addiction – Review & Excerpt
Little Bookworm Reviews – Review & Excerpt
With Love for Books – Review & Excerpt
The Cover Contessa – Review & Excerpt
February 1st
A Leisure Moment – Review
Book Bite Reviews – Review & Excerpt
Never Judge a Book by its Cover – Review & Excerpt
Pages to Explore – Excerpt
Red Hot + Blue Reads – review & Excerpt
Stuck In Books – Review & Excerpt
February 2nd
Actin' Up with Books – Review & Excerpt
Contagious Reads – Review & Excerpt
Go Read A Book – Review
The Book Maven – Review & Excerpt
February 3rd
A Gingerly Review – Review & Excerpt
Bookish Hollow – Review & Excerpt
Lovely Reads Publishing – Review & Excerpt
Vera is Reading – Excerpt
I Heart YA Books – Review & Excerpt
   
LONG WAY HOME - teaser 3 Fotolia update
   

   
Katie McGarry - author picKatie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. 

Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, NOWHERE BUT HERE and WALK THE EDGE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.  

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Pinterest | Goodreads




On the outside, this whole series seems like such an odd match for me. First of all, I am a woman in my 40's with teenage children. Second, I am not a fan of the motorcycle club movement in books and TV shows and such. However, I am obsessed with this series, and Katie McGarry really outdid herself with Long Way Home.

If you've been reading the series, then you are probably like me and have been begging for Violet and Chevy's story. The tension between them has been stretched throughout the other books. You could feel the heartache that came with every encounter between Chevy and Violet and so far their history has only been hinted at.

Violet carries a lot of hard feelings for the Reign of Terror, the motorcycle club her father was a part of and died serving. The Terror seem to be controlling every aspect of Violet's life and the more she tries to pull away and separate her family from the Terror, the more the leaders seem to tighten the reins. Violet's friends are all loyal to the MC and cannot understand her need to pull away.

Both being children of the Terror, Chevy and Violet have been friends forever. Their friendship grew into a young and passionate love. Things fell apart when Violet's trust in the Terror crumbled and while Chevy's 18th birthday is quickly approaching, he is determined to prove his loyalty to his family and the club.

Long Way Home is an action-packed ride from the beginning. To avoid spoilers, I've only mentioned some of the behind-the-scenes tensions going on in this story, but the real conflict involves The Riot, The Reign of Terror's rival motorcycle club. While the Terror may push some boundaries, they always try to operate within the confines of the law. The Riot has no such convictions and will use threats and violence and whatever else it takes for them to get the revenge they feel they deserve. 

As Violet tries to pull farther away from the Terror, she finds herself in Riot territory with seemingly few routes of escape. Chevy and Violet's love for each other is renewed and tested even more than ever before. Their loyalty to their families, the club, and each other is stretched to the limits. With actions that will definitely alienate them from the Terror and the Terror leaders, they both take big risks, but sometimes the right man for the job is a girl.

Katie McGarry knows how to write authentic characters that you want as your own best friends. Their struggles are real and sometimes life-threatening, yet never feel outrageous or overdone. I end every one of her stories with my heart pounding and my soul begging for more.

This books is recommended for Young Adult, New Adult, and Contemporary Romance readers. It's a full 5-Star Read.



Violet is done with letting others run her life. She isn't going to allow anyone to run her life anymore. I love these songs to show her strength and her willingness to fight for what she wants.

Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow



Sick Puppies - You're Going Down





Happy Release Day - Accidentally on Purposes by Jill Shalvis

Accidentally On Purpose- Release Day Launch banner    

From New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis comes the next sexy, standalone novel in the Heartbreaker Bay series…

    

About ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE:

There’s no such thing as a little in love . . .

Elle Wheaton’s priorities: friends, career, and kick-ass shoes. Then there’s the muscular wall of stubbornness that’s security expert Archer Hunt—who comes before everything else. No point in telling Mr. “Feels-Free Zone” that, though. Elle will just see other men until she gets over Archer . . . which should only take a lifetime . . .

There’s no such thing as a little in lust . . .

Archer’s wanted the best for Elle ever since he sacrificed his law-enforcement career to save her. Their chemistry could start the next San Francisco earthquake and he craves her 24/7, but Archer doesn’t want to be responsible for the damage. The alternative? Watch her go out with guys who aren’t him . . .

There is such a thing as . . .

As far as Archer’s concerned, nobody is good enough for Elle. But when he sets out to prove it by sabotaging her dates, she gets mad—and things get hot as hell. Now Archer has a new mission: prove to Elle that her perfect man has been here all along . . .

ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE in ebook or paperback, releasing today!

Amazon | iBooks | Kobo| Barnes & Noble

      Accidentally On Purpose-RDL Teaser    

Add to your Goodreads




His hand caught her, long fingers wrapping around her elbow and causing all sorts of unwelcome sensations as he pulled her back around. 

“What?” she asked. 

“Waiting for my apology.” 

“Sure,” she said agreeably. “When hell freezes over.” She lifted her chin, grateful for her four-inch heels so that she could almost, kind of, not quite look him in the eyes. “I’m in charge of this building, Archer, which means I’m in charge of everything that happens in it. I’m also in charge of everyone who works for this building.” 

He cocked his head, looking amused again. “You want to be the boss of me, Elle?” he asked softly. 

"I am the boss of you.” 

Now he outright smiled and her breath caught. Damn, stupid, sexy smile. And then there was The Body. Yes, she thought of it in capital letters, it deserved the respect. “If you don’t want to be walking funny tomorrow,” she said, “you’ll stop invading my personal-space bubble.” 

Complete bravado and they both knew it. She’d only been at this job for a year and it’d come as a surprise to her that he’d been in the building at all. An unfortunate coincidence. Before that it’d been years since they’d had any contact, but she still knew enough to get that no one got the better of him. 

He was quick, light on his feet, and physically strong. But that wasn’t what made him so dangerous to her. No, it was his sharp intelligence, his quick wit, how he was willing to go as dark as he needed to in order to do what he thought was right. 

And then there was the biggie—the way he had of making her feel shockingly alive. 

He did as she asked and stepped back but not before pausing to make sure they both knew who was in control here, and it most definitely wasn’t her. 

No one did intimidation like Archer, and in his line of work he could be in a coma and still intimidate everyone in the room. He had muscles on top of muscles but didn’t look beefed up like a body builder might. Instead his body seemed lean and seriously badass, with caramel skin that strayed from light to golden to mocha latte depending on what the season was, giving him a look of indeterminable origin. 

And sexiness. 

It worked for him, allowing him to fit in to just about any situation. Handy on the job, she imagined. But with her he was careful. Distant. And yet she’d seen the way he sometimes looked at her, and on the rare occasion when he’d touched her, like when he guided her through a door with his hand low on her back, he let himself linger. There was always a shocking and baffling yearning beyond both the glances and the touches. 

That, or it was all just wishful thinking. 

Not that it mattered since he still held back with her. The problem was she yearned too. Yearned for him to see her as a woman, strong and capable enough to stand at his side. 

But after what they’d been through, she knew that would never happen. She turned away, annoyed by how her entire body had gone on high alert as always, every inch of her seeming to hum beneath the surface. 

She should have just emailed him.    
    Heartbreaker Bay graphic

And don’t miss the previous books in Jill Shalvis’s Heartbreaker Bay Series, 

SWEET LITTLE LIES, 

THE TROUBLE WITH MISTLETOE 

and ONE SNOWY NIGHT, 

now available! Grab your copies HERE!


About Jill Shalvis: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s sexy contemporary and award-winning books wherever romances are sold and click on the blog button above for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.         

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