Blog Tour (Spotlight): The Courage Series by Jill Daugherty @samijolien @jilldaugherty

Welcome to Bibliophilia, Please's stop on Jill Daugherty's Courage series blog tour! I have some information about the three books below, and there's also a great deal going on right now for the first book, Courage and Other Demons!

Book One



Title: Courage and Other Demons
Author: Jill Daugherty
Publisher: Open Mike Publishing
Tour Organizer: Roger Charlie
Release Date: January 15, 2013
The end of the world will start in the suburbs of Denver with a faery transfer student from Ireland. If you think that’s totally ridiculous, then you understand how Maggie O’Neill feels. In all of her sixteen years, faeries were something you read about in children’s books. They didn’t actually show up on your doorstep. They didn’t kiss you and make your knees go weak and whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Until Simon Brady, that is. Simon changed everything. He makes her heart race and her skin burn with excitement, but he has also changed her core beliefs about the world and made her see it as a dark and dangerous place filled with monsters that belong only in the lines of faery tales. There is no doubt in Maggie’s mind that she loves Simon, but can she see past who he is and find a place for him in her heart?

Get your copy FREE until July 22nd on Amazon!


Book Two

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (ARC)

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

My Review

Whoa.

Seriously. Whoa.

Okay, let me start off by saying that A Court of Thorns and Roses is outstanding. I don't know if Sarah J. Maas could write a bad book if she tried. I loved Throne of Glass so much that it was also difficult to put to words, but obligation requires me to tell you guys about this book. So I shall. Prepare for gushing.

Waiting on Wednesday (78): A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Release Date: May 5, 2015
When 19-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it ... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.


I loved Maas' Throne of Glass, but this year's release of Heir of Fire blew all of my expectations out of the water. She was already one of my auto-buy authors, so I honestly didn't even read the synopsis after I saw the cover release and decided this must be this week's Waiting on Wednesday. Then, I found out that it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling (which is my absolute favorite), so I am counting the days until I can get this beauty into my hands.

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: Evernight by Kristen Callihan

Title: Evernight (Darkest London #5)
Author: Kristen Callihan
Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Once the night comes . . .

Will Thorne is living a nightmare, his sanity slowly being drained away by a force he can't control. His talents have made him the perfect assassin for hire. But as he loses his grip on reality, there is no calming him—until he finds his next target: the mysterious Holly Evernight.

Love must cast aside the shadows . . .

Holly cannot fathom who would put a contract on her life, yet the moment she touches Will, the connection between them is elemental, undeniable—and she's the only one who can tame his bouts of madness. But other assassins are coming for Holly. Will must transform from killer to protector and find the man who wants Holly dead . . . or his only chance for redemption will be lost.

My Review

This review will not contain spoilers for Evernight but will possibly contain spoilers if you have not read the previous books in the series.

Darkest London is one of my favorite steampunk/historical romance series out right now. Will Thorne and Holly Evernight may have just been my favorite couple yet!

I felt so bad for both Thorne and Holly - Holly for being forced into hurting people, Thorne included, and Thorne for being tortured into a monstrous being and a painful wreck of who he used to be. From the beginning, these two make for an interesting and amazing story. The novel almost immediately begins with a bang, with Holly protecting herself from Thorne and other assassins trying to kill her (because Thorne blames Holly for his current maddened state). Then, once Thorne realizes that Holly can calm him and make the metal retreat, they make a deal. Thorne will protect Holly from whomever is trying to kill her, and Holly will calm and soothe Thorne from the madness and metal.

Waiting on Wednesday (64): The Witch With No Name by Kim Harrison

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: The Witch With No Name (The Hollows #13)
Author: Kim Harrison
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: September 9, 2014
Rachel Morgan's come a long way from the clutzy runner of Dead Witch Walking. She's faced vampires and werewolves, banshees, witches, and soul-eating demons. She's crossed worlds, channeled gods, and accepted her place as a day-walking demon. She's lost friends and lovers and family, and an old enemy has become something much more.

But power demands responsibility, and world-changers must always pay a price. That time is now.

To save Ivy's soul and the rest of the living vampires, to keep the demonic ever after and our own world from destruction, Rachel Morgan will risk everything.


I just finished listening to The Undead Pool on Saturday, and I can't wait to see how this decade-long series will come to its conclusion. Admittedly, I have struggled with this series, as Rachel drives me up the wall at times, but Kim Harrison has a great touch in world-building and character growth. I really hope that Rachel, Ivy, Jenks, Trent, Al, and even Newt all get happily ever afters (pun intended).

What are you waiting on this week?

Early Review: Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Title: Winterspell
Author: Claire Legrand
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Acquired Via: Edelweiss
Release Date: September 30, 2014
The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor's ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother's murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted--by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they're to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets--and a need she can't define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won't leave Cane unscathed--if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

My Review

I picked up Winterspell because the connection to The Nutcracker was intriguing and I had never read anything by Claire Legrand. I was expecting a light fantasy based on fairies and a little magic, but I got so much more than that.

Waiting on Wednesday (49): The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: The Falconer (The Falconer #1)
Author: Elizabeth May
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Heiress. Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844

Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.

Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.

But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?


This looks like it combines a lot of things I love to read about - fantasy, fairies, and Scotland/England high society pre-1900. I cannot wait to get my hands on this - Aileana just seems like she's going to be my kind of bad-ass heroine!

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: The Queen's Choice by Cayla Kluver

Title: The Queen's Choice (Heirs of Chrior #1)
Author: Cayla Kluver
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Magic was seeping out of me, black and agonizing. I could see it drifting away. The magic that would let me pass the Road to reach home again.

When sixteen-year-old Anya learns that her aunt, Queen of the Faerie Kingdom of Chrior, will soon die, her grief is equalled only by her despair for the future of the kingdom. Her young cousin, Illumina, is unfit to rule, and Anya is determined not to take up the queen's mantle herself.

Convinced that the only solution is to find Prince Zabriel, who long ago disappeared into the human realm of Warckum, and persuade him to take up his rightful crown, Anya journeys into the Warckum Territory to bring him home. But her journey is doomed to be more harrowing than she ever could have imagined.

My Review

I loved the concept of the world in The Queen's Choice. The human world and the faerie world are divided by a “bloody road” that apparently only the fae may cross. The division between the world and the prejudices against the humans and faes was also very interesting. Some of the characteristics of the fae seemed very arbitrary (like how faeries only have magic if they have wings), but this is a fantasy novel, so I was willing to overlook it. I do wish that we would have had more of the fae world described, especially considering that the human world is hyper-described.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Root Bound by Tanya Karen Gough

Root Bound Tour Schedule



Title: Root Bound (Emma & the Elementals #1)
Author: Tanya Karen Gough
Publisher: Baba Yaga Press
Acquired Via: CBB Book Promotions
Release Date: June 3, 2012
Root Bound is a fast-paced, action fantasy novel about a young girl finding her place in the world through a series of adventures involving magical creatures, and a journey to the centre of the earth. Root Bound is both a topsy-turvy riff on traditional literary children's fantasy and an allegorical coming-of-age tale.

Emma and her father, a jazz musician, are always on the move, travelling from place to place as her father’s work demands. Their new home, however, is different. There’s a frightening woman who lives down the hall: she bears an uncanny resemblance to a witch. A mysterious light comes from her apartment, and a small boy seems to be trapped inside.

School in this town is no happy place either, with an odd principal and a gang of girls who make tormenting Emma their special project. And strangest of all is the fact that there seem to be brownies - basement brownies, in the air vent in her bedroom. They are searching for the Wanderer, a powerful being who can help free the Crown Prince of Under from the black magic prison that holds him. Emma travels through the brownie burrow to the valley of Hades to visit with the goddess Ceres, following a series of clues that lead her across the sea of memory to the centre of the world. There, on an inhospitable rock floating in a sea of steaming lava, Emma must find a way to free the prince, release her mother from the sea of memory, and restore magic to both the brownie burrow and the human world above.

My Review

Root Bound is a fun-filled, middle grade fantasy novel by Tanya Karen Gough that reminded me of other children's novels, The Littles by John Peterson and The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Root Bound is different in that the magical creatures - brownies - only came to "Over" (the human realm) because "Under" (where the brownies live) was in trouble. The main character in the novel is Emma, who just moved to a new house because of her father's latest music gig.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): Darkest Day by Emi Gayle

Title: Darkest Day (The 19th Year #3)
Author: Emi Gayle
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
Release Date: January 6, 2014
Mac Thorne’s time as a Changeling is coming to an end.

It may have taken eighteen years, but Mac did finally manage to do what the Council wanted: she chose a teacher and renounced the in-between.

There’s just one last step. She must say goodbye to her human. Forever.

After being challenged in every way possible, Mac leaves what she thought would be the easiest task for the last possible moment. As midnight on July fourth draws near, though, she hasn’t found a way to give up Winn Thomas.

Nor does she want to.

With time running out, Mac stands at a literal crossroads. Choose Winn, and she’ll be stripped of the only family she’s ever known — vampires, dragons, and her favorite demon. Even her own mother. Accept her position on the Council and rule as an equal to her twelve peers, and she’ll forget Winn ever existed.

Independence and freedom have never before been so limiting.

In this final chapter of the 19th Year Trilogy, it’s time for Mac to decide.

Responsibility? Or Love?

Guest Post

What I Learned Most About Myself While Writing This Series
Emi Gayle
What did I learn about me? I'll give you five things.

1 - I love my characters. I swear to you that I came to love them and I cried when I finished because that meant they were leaving me. Or I was leaving them. One of the two.

Book Blast (Guest Post & Giveaway): Finn Finnegan by Darby Karchut

Title: Finn Finnegan (The Adventures of Finn MacCullen #1)
Author: Darby Karchut
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Blast Organizer: Xpresso Book Tours
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Finnegan MacCullen: a thirteen-year-old apprentice with the famous Irish temperament.
Gideon Lir: a legendary Celtic warrior with a bit of a temper of his own.

Secretly, these blue-collar warriors battle the hobgoblins infesting their suburban neighborhood…when they are not battling each other.

Finn (not bleedin’ Finnegan) MacCullen is eager to begin his apprenticeship. He soon discovers the ups and downs of hunting monsters in a suburban neighborhood under the demanding tutelage of the Knight, Gideon Lir. Both master and apprentice are descendants of the Tuatha De Danaan, a magical race of warriors from Ireland. Scattered long ago to the four corners of the world, the De Danaan wage a two thousand year old clandestine battle with their ancient enemy, the Amandán, a breed of goblin-like creatures.

Now with the beasts concentrating their attacks on Finn, he and his master must race to locate the lost Spear of the Tuatha De Danaan, the only weapon that can destroy the Amandán, all the while hiding his true identity from his new friends, Rafe and Savannah, twins whose South African roots may hold a key to Finn’s survival.

Armed with a bronze dagger, some ancient Celtic magic, and a hair-trigger temper, Finn is about to show his enemies the true meaning of “fighting Irish.”

Book Trailer

Black Friday Extravaganza Giveaway and Facebook Party Hosted by Laura Howard

Title: The Forgotten Ones (The Danaan Trilogy #1)
Author: Laura Howard
Genre: New Adult Fantasy Release Date: April 28, 2013
Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha Dé Danann? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble


About the Author

Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.


Links
Twitter | Facebook
Facebook Party

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): For Your Heart by A.L. Davroe

Tour Schedule



Title: For Your Heart (Retellings #1)
Authors: A.L. Davroe
Acquired Via: Reading Addiction Blog Tours
Release Date: October 31, 2013
Experience THE BALLAD OF TAM LIN like you’ve never read it before…

It has been seven years since Jeanette Sauderheim followed her best friend into Carver Hall Park...and came out alone. Jeanette has never gotten over his mysterious disappearance nor has she gone back into the park. While that traumatic night still haunts her, Jeanette distracts herself by balancing her time between trying to pass Spanish, hanging out with her friends, and reading the latest manga.

But, when a promise to a friend drives her back into the park, she's forced to re-live the memories of that night. Lost and confused, Jeanette crosses paths with Tamrin, whose violent reaction to her provides yet another reason to avoid the park.

Tamrin, a knight of the Summer Court, has been sent to Earth to guard a garden of roses that hold special meaning to the queen of the Summer faeries. When his distraction at meeting Jeanette leads to her picking one of the Summer Queen’s roses, Tamrin vows to right his failure to do his duty.

However, the equivalent of one of the queen’s roses is a human heart and Tamrin’s reluctance to readily exact the sum from Jeanette sets in motion a spiral of love, betrayal, and magic that could mean damnation for them both.

My Review

I haven't read books with fairies as the main "supe" (supernatural/paranormal creature), so I was very excited for the opportunity to review For Your Heart. Finding out that the book was written by A.L. Davroe, whom I met and enjoyed listening to at Authors After Dark in New Orleans, was double the icing on the cake. I have never read any of the Tam Lin stories previous to For Your Heart, so I was able to experience this reimagining of the "fairy tale" repurposed with no expectations.

Review: Blythewood by Carol Goodman

Title: Blythewood
Author: Carol Goodman
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: October 8, 2013
Welcome to Blythewood.

At seventeen, Avaline Hall has already buried her mother, survived a horrific factory fire, and escaped from an insane asylum. Now she’s on her way to Blythewood Academy, the elite boarding school in New York’s mist-shrouded Hudson Valley that her mother attended—and was expelled from. Though she’s afraid her high society classmates won’t accept a factory girl in their midst, Ava is desperate to unravel her family’s murky past, discover the identity of the father she’s never known, and perhaps finally understand her mother’s abrupt suicide. She’s also on the hunt for the identity of the mysterious boy who rescued her from the fire. And she suspects the answers she seeks lie at Blythewood.

But nothing could have prepared her for the dark secret of what Blythewood is, and what its students are being trained to do. Haunted by dreams of a winged boy and pursued by visions of a sinister man who breathes smoke, Ava isn’t sure if she’s losing her mind or getting closer to the truth. And the more rigorously Ava digs into the past, the more dangerous her present becomes.

Vivid and atmospheric, full of mystery and magic, this romantic page-turner by bestselling author Carol Goodman tells the story of a world on the brink of change and the girl who is the catalyst for it all.

My Review

I almost didn't read this book. You know how it goes - you get busy, life poops on you, blah blah blah... I said to hell with my reading schedule, and I read this book when I was already behind. I spent extra time with the book because it released after my turn with the ARC. I wouldn't say that I couldn't put the book down, but I picked it up at every opportunity that I had.

Book Blast (Giveaway): The Immortal Circus by A.R. Kahler

Ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a show unlike any you've seen before.

Within the walls of THE IMMORTAL CIRCUS, you'll be amazed by acts of tragic romance, seductive magic, and maybe even a little murder.

After all, loves, nothing is what it seems under this big top. Not even your innocent little heroine, Vivienne.

Released every two weeks through the Kindle Serials program, we'll be sure to keep you on the edge of your seat, right up to the breathtaking conclusion that will have you begging for more. But don't worry, loves—you'll delight in the anticipation.

I personally guarantee it.

Follow our spectacle across four blogs representing the two Faerie Courts. There will be exclusive interviews and artwork, backstage reviews and more from the author, A.R. Kahler—and trust me when I say, he knows the circus well. Pick a side, promote the show, and compete for your chance to win a spectacular prize of circus goods.

And my eternal love, of course.

Trust me when I say, when the final curtain falls, no one and no thing will ever be the same.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The show's just beginning.

Are you ready to run away forever?

 -- Mab
Ringleader, Fashionista, and Queen of the Winter Court

Choose Your Court