Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Blood Crown by Ali Cross

Title: Blood Crown
Author: Ali Cross
Publisher: Novel Ninjutsu
Blog Tour Organizer: Blog Tours By Elana
Release Date: February 20, 2014
Androids have claimed power over what remains of the human race. They rule without remorse. They are the Mind and humans exist only to serve them.

But it wasn't always so.

Before the android uprising, select droids, called Servants, were pivotal in engineering a new human race with nanotechnology enhanced DNA. The Blood Crown theorum was to be humanity's crowning glory and the key to their survival in deep space.

But Serantha, Daughter of the West, was the last female to receive Gifts from her Servant and when the Mind mutinied, she was hidden away, and presumed dead.

Without Serantha there is no hope of the Blood Crown being realized so Nicolai, Son of the East, abandons his crown to join the rebel forces. He might not provide the future for his people he had once dreamed of, but he will not go down without a fight.

When Nicolai discovers Sera among a small compliment of kitchen staff, everything changes--but Sera's Gifts were never completed and she is ill-equipped to face a legion of androids determined to wipe her, and every other human, out of existence.

Their only hope is the Blood Crown--but even if Serantha and Nicolai can realize their potential it may be too late to save mankind.

Author Interview

1. Please tell us a little bit about Blood Crown in your own words but with a Twitter twist – 140 characters or less.

Blood Crown is a science fiction romance with a Cinderella twist.

2. Where did you get the idea for the book?

Top Ten Tuesday: Popular Authors I Have Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Popular Authors I Have Never Read



1. Stephen King



2. Garth Nix
Author of the Abhorsen series

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Sing Sweet Nightingale by Erica Cameron

Sing Sweet Nightingale Tour Schedule
Welcome to my stop on the Sing Sweet Nightinggale Blog Tour, brought to you by Rockstar Book Tours. Today I will be featuring an interview with Erica Cameron about her writing, and there will be a tour-wide giveaway at the end of the post!



Title: Sing Sweet Nightingale (The Dream War Saga #1)
Author: Erica Snyder
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Tour Organizer: Rockstar Book Tours
Release Date: March 4, 2014
Mariella Teagen hasn't spoken a word in four years.

She pledged her voice to Orane, the man she loves—someone she only sees in her dreams. Each night, she escapes to Paradise, the world Orane created for her, and she sings for him. Mariella never believed she could stay in Paradise longer than a night, but two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, Orane hints that she may be able to stay forever.

Hudson Vincent made a pledge to never fight again.

Calease, the creature who created his dream world, swore that giving up violence would protect Hudson. But when his vow caused the death of his little brother, Hudson turned his grief on Calease and destroyed the dream world. The battle left him with new abilities and disturbing visions of a silent girl in grave danger—Mariella.

Now, Hudson is fighting to save Mariella's life while she fights to give it away. And he must find a way to show her Orane’s true intentions before she is lost to Paradise forever.

Author Interview

1. Please tell us a little bit about Sing Sweet Nightingale in your own words but with a Twitter twist – 140 characters or less.

A girl who made a vow of silence and a boy with more scars than he can count. The dreamworld that ties them together may destroy them both.

2. What was the most fun part about writing Sing Sweet Nightingale?

Review: The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

Title: The Ring and the Crown
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the Lily Throne, and Aelwyn Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. But who will rule, and who will serve?

Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second, Supreme Ruler of the Franco-British Empire. With the help of her Head Merlin, Emrys, Eleanor has maintained her stranglehold on the world's only source of magic. She rules the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.

But even with the aid of Emrys' magic, Eleanor's extended lifespan is nearing its end. The princess must marry and produce an heir or the Empire will be vulnerable to its greatest enemy, Prussia. The two kingdoms must unite to end the war, and the only solution is a match between Marie and Prince Leopold VII, heir to the Prussian throne. But Marie has always loved Gill, her childhood friend and soldier of the Queen's Guard.

Together, Marie and Aelwyn, a powerful magician in her own right, come up with a plan. Aelwyn will take on Marie's face, allowing the princess to escape with Gill and live the quiet life she's always wanted. And Aelwyn will get what she's always dreamed of--the chance to rule. But the court intrigue and hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor's court: trust no one.

My Review

The Ring and the Crown is a YA fantasy novel by Melissa de la Cruz that I would love to see more books like. It is a well-constructed blend of historical fiction, alternate history, fantasy, and romance. The characters are all fascinating and demand your interest, keeping you glued to the pages. By the way, did I mention that there was royalty, scandal, and swooning? No?! Well, there is, and it is glorious!

Audiobook Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
Author: Susan EE
Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Publisher: Feral Dream & Brilliance Audio
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: May 21, 2011
It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

My Review

Angelfall by Susan Ee has been on my radar for a few years now, but I avoided it because I haven't had a lot of luck with self-published novels. Honestly, I probably would have taken my time in getting around to reading it, despite the fact that I owned it on Kindle and Audible, if not for many reviewers that I trust raving about it in anticipation of its sequel, World After.

I'm so glad that I got off of my ass and read it.

Leap into Books Giveaway Hop #2 (INT)

Welcome to my stop on the Leap into Books Giveaway Hop. This hop is co-hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Jinky at Jinky is Reading.

What You Can Win

Angelfall and World After are two of the best books that I've read this year (maybe even last year, too!), and they gave me major book hangovers. While the situations in them are not anything that I would necessarily like to "leap into", they are most certainly books that I got lost in. I'll probably leap into rereading them before book #3 comes out, which is not anywhere near soon enough.


Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
World After (Penryn & the End of Days #2)
Penryn is trying to survive. Because after the angels came to destroy the modern world there are no rules. Streets are ruled by gangs and angels are hunting for humans. When her sister is kidnapped Penryn will do everything she can to find her even if it means working with the enemy. Everything could happen in this new dangerous world.


Giveaway

Blog Tour (Review & Guest Post): The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

Title: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (Alex Wayfare #1)
Author: M.G. Buehrlen
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: March 4, 2014
One girl. Fifty-seven lives. Endless ways to die.

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

Guest Post


*Click on the letter to make it larger.
My Review

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare is M.G. Buehrlen's debut novel that is a blend of time travel and romance. The driving force of the novel is teenage outcast, Alex Wayfare, as she comes to terms with ability to drop into her past lives. While the book is technically science fiction (by my reckoning), there is definitely a contemporary feel to the book, as Alex has to deal with things that many teens are faced with.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): The Line by J.D. Horn

Title: The Line (Witching Savannah #1)
Author: J.D. Horn
Publisher: 47North
Release Date: February 1, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Savannah is considered a Southern treasure, a city of beauty with a rich, colorful past. Some might even call it magical…

To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South.

Despite being powerless herself, of course.

Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content. But when a series of mishaps—culminating in the death of the Taylor matriarch—leaves a vacuum in the mystical underpinnings of Savannah, she finds herself thrust into a mystery that could shake her family apart…and unleash a darkness the line of Taylor witches has been keeping at bay for generations.

In The Line, the first book of the Witching Savannah series, J.D. Horn weaves magic, romance, and betrayal into a captivating Southern Gothic fantasy with a contemporary flare.

My Review

I must have paid some sort of sacrifice to the god of bestowing wonderful books because I've come across many lately, with J.D. Horn's debut, The Line, being the latest of the bunch. I was worried that I wouldn't like the book, despite it being a paranormal fantasy set in the South. However, the main character, Mercy Taylor, and Horn's excellent writing won me over within the first handful of pages.