Waiting on Wednesday: Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event where we highlight the upcoming releases that we can't wait to read! Do your own Waiting on Wednesday post and put your link in the comments down below so we can stop by and check it out!

This week, Jessica is waiting on...

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Title: Glass Sword
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 9th, 2016
Hardcover, 448 Pages
Summary: Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever? 
Jessica says: I am so excited to get my hands on this book! Amber and I both read Red Queen, the first book in the series, and absolutely loved it. It reminds me of a twist between The Selection and The Hunger Games, which are both series that everyone knows and loves. I'm super excited to finally be able to read this book - February can't come soon enough!

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What are you waiting on this week? Comment down below and let me know - I love hearing what everyone's weekly picks are!

Book Blitz: Forever With You by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Excerpt & Giveaway)

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We are so excited to bring you the Release Week Blitz for Jennifer L. Armentrout's Forever With You! Forever With You is a standalone New Adult contemporary romance being released on September 29th (aka today!!) and it is the fifth book in the Wait For You Series, published by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Grab your copy of this incredible addition to Jennifer's Wait For You Series and see what everyone is talking about! 


Forever With You - Cover

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks ** Kobo

Praise for Forever With You:

“Armentrout packs a powerful emotional punch in her fifth Wait for Younew adult contemporary (after Fall with Me)... Armentrout tugs at the heartstrings while delivering an intense, gripping tale.” –Publishers Weekly

“Armentrout presents an emotional installment in her Wait for You series…[she] does it again, presenting a fast-paced tearjerker that fans will devour.”
--Booklist



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Forever With You Synopsis:

In the irresistibly sexy series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout, two free spirits find their lives changed by a one-night stand…

Some things you just believe in, even if you've never experienced them. For Stephanie, that list includes love. It's out there. Somewhere. Eventually. Meanwhile she's got her job at the mixed martial arts training center and hot flings with gorgeous, temporary guys like Nick. Then a secret brings them closer, opening Steph's eyes to a future she never knew she wanted—until tragedy rips it away.

Nick's self-assured surface shields a past no one needs to know about. His mind-blowing connection with Steph changes all that. As fast as he's knocking down the walls that have kept him commitment-free, she's building them up again, determined to keep the hurt—and Nick—out. But he can't walk away. Not when she's the only one who's ever made him wish for forever . . .


And don’t miss the previous titles in the Wait for You Series!

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WAIT FOR YOU (Wait for You #1)

TRUST IN ME (Wait for You #1.5)

BE WITH ME (Wait for You #2)

STAY WITH ME (Wait for You #3)

FALL WITH ME (Wait for You #4)

DREAM OF YOU (Wait for You #4.5)



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A Brief Excerpt of Forever With You:

I cradled my drink as Cam sauntered back to the pool tables. My mind wasn’t made up on the whole visiting them thing yet. Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn’t.
“Want another rum and coke?”
            My lips curled up at the sound of Nick’s rich, deep voice. We’d been chatting on and off since I plopped my butt down on the stool, and he had seemed happy that I was there.
            Total bonus points lottery with this guy.
“I’m good, but thanks.” The last thing I wanted to be was drunk. I smiled at him, pleased when his heavily hooded gaze dipped again. “Are you guys usually this busy on the weekend?”
            I could see that small talk was something Nick excelled at, which made sense, considering his occupation. He was an equal opportunity charmer. Women flocked to him at the bar. The other bartender, the girl with the pink glasses, seemed to take it all in stride.
“Not sure if you really call this busy, but Saturdays usually bring a larger crowd.” He glanced down the bar before continuing. “So you went to school with them?” he asked, jerking his chin in the direction Cam had roamed off to.
“Yeah.” Leaning forward, I placed my elbows on the bar. “I had no idea they had connections here. Total surprise.”
“Small world,” he said, echoing my earlier thought. “But you’re not very close with them.”
It was a statement, not a question. “What makes you think that?”
“Well, if you were, I guess you’d be over there with them. Or …”
Nick was observant. “Or what?”
            One side of his lips curled up as he folded his arms across his chest. The movement drew my attention. I was such a visual creature. Not that anyone would blame me right now. The black shirt he wore stretched around well-defined biceps. “Or you’d rather spend the time with me.”
            The twisty motion in my belly cranked up a notch. “Am I that transparent?”
            “In the best possible way.” He picked up a bottle. “I’m glad you did stop by. Every time the door opened last night, I looked up and hoped it was you.”
            “Is that so?”
            “I speak the truth.” His smile was lazy. “Did you finish unpacking?”
            “Yep.”
            “Were there any more rat bastard combinations?”
            I laughed. “There were a few more.”
            “Kind of mad I missed out on them.”
            “There’s always later.” I toyed with my glass as I met and held his stare. “So, Nick, do you have a last name?”
            “Blanco,” he replied after a brief hesitation. “Do you?”
            “Keith.” I grinned as he unfolded those arms. “I have another question for you.”
            Moving in, he placed his hands on the bar. “Ask away.”
            “Do you have a girlfriend?” My breath caught a little when he leaned in suddenly. Our mouths were close enough that we were breathing the same tiny patch of oxygen. “Or a boyfriend?”
            Nick didn’t bat an eyelash. “Nope to both. How about you?”
            Bonus points explosion!
            “None,” I said, welcoming the tingle that swirled down my spine as his breath warmed my lips.
            He tilted his head to the side, lining up his mouth with mine with just a fraction of an inch between us. I started to feel a little flushed. “You have plans tonight, Stephanie Keith?” he asked, voice deeper and rougher.
            I shook my head as my pulse tripped all over itself in a happy little dance.
            Nick’s grin spread into the kind of smile I knew left a trail of women in its wake. “You do now.”

About Jennifer L. Armentrout:

Author Photo--JLA_J. Lynn

# 1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell, Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA.

She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.


Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Novel Goodreads ** Author Goodreads

**GIVEAWAY**



We'd like to thank everyone over at Harper who allowed us to be a part of this blitz! Both of us are huge fans of Jen's work and we were over the moon at the opportunity to promote yet another one of her amazing books!


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Book Blitz: Wild Sky by Suzanne and Melanie Brockmann (Excerpt & Giveaway)

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We're honored to be chosen to take part in the special book blitz for Wild Sky by Suzanne & Melanie Brockmann!

About the Book:

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Title: Wild Sky (Night Sky, #2)
Authors: Suzanne & Melanie Brockmann
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Young Adult (Paranormal)
Summary: Skylar is a girl with extraordinary power. A girl with a mission to use her Greater-Than gifts to stop the makers of Destiny from getting people hooked on their deadly drug. But Sky is still mastering her new abilities, and her first mission to destroy a Destiny lab leaves her best friend addicted to the drug. For a few days Cal will be able to walk again – until it kills him. Time is running out for Sky to save the world without sacrificing her friends, to become truly Greater-Than...

About the Authors:

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Suzanne Brockman, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author, has won 2 RITA awards, numerous RT Reviewers’ Choice, and RWA’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year three years running. She has written over 50 books, and is widely recognized as a “superstar of romantic suspense” (USA Today). Suzanne and her daughter, Melanie Brockmann, have been creative partners, on and off, for many years. Their first project was an impromptu musical duet, when then-six-month-old Melanie surprised and delighted Suz by matching her pitch and singing back to her. Suzanne splits her time between Florida and Massachusetts while Mel lives in Sarasota, Florida. NIGHT SKY is Mel’s debut and Suzanne’s 55th book. Visit Suzanne at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com.
A quick message from the authors:

Mel:  Wild Sky is a paranormal story, set in Florida, approximately fifty years in the future. In this world, a small percentage of people, mostly girls and young women, are born with a chemical in their blood that gives them superpowers like telekinesis or extraordinary strength.

Suz: Nicknamed “Greater-Thans” or “G-Ts,” these girls have been targeted for kidnapping by bad guys who harvest their blood and use it to manufacture a drug called “Destiny.” Destiny is extremely expensive, highly addictive, and ultimately fatal, but before the user dies from it, the drug reverses the aging process, heals illness and injury, and gives the addict super powers, too.

Mel:  It’s pretty scary stuff!  Oh, and just an FYI: Although Wild Sky is the sequel to Night Sky, you don’t have to read Night Sky for Wild Sky to make sense!

Suz:  All you really need to know is that in Night Sky sixteen-year-old Skylar Reid discovers that she’s a Greater-Than with some serious superpowers. 

Mel: And that Sky and her best friend Calvin--a really upbeat kid who’s spent most of his life in a wheelchair--have some dangerous adventures with another tough-girl G-T named Dana, and Dana’s extremely (ahem) attractive sidekick Milo.

Suz: Sky and Milo really hit it off, so in Wild Sky, they’re a bit of an item.

Mel:  A bit! In Wild Sky, Sky and her friends get into more trouble as they search for Dana’s sister, Lacey, who disappeared years ago and has been presumed dead.

Suz: But now Sky’s got reason to believe Lacey’s being held captive in a Destiny “farm.”  And of course, high jinks ensue, and our beloved character Calvin is put into extreme danger--although throughout most of it, he holds onto his crazy sense of humor!

Mel: We both love Calvin very much!

Suz: And Sky does, too!  When we developed the Night Sky series, we wanted to center it around a main character we could easily relate to. And even though we grew up in very different circumstances –

Mel: Mom has an older sister, I have a younger brother. My dad was a lawyer, my mom a writer. My mom’s parents were both teachers.

Suz: I grew up listening to the Beatles –

Mel: Christina Aguilera.

Suz:  Watching Star Trek.

MelFull House.

Suz: Paul Newman!

Mel: Bradley Cooper!

Suz: But despite all of those superficial differences, Mel and I shared experiences far too common to teenage girls. Waves of self-doubt, with occasionally soul-crushing periods of insecurity.

Mel: Yet even at our lowest moments, we knew that there were things we were really good at.

Suz: And that’s where Sky came from. A young woman whose primary goal is to fit in with her peers, but whose G-T status makes that virtually impossible. Or so she believes.

Mel: Of course, her friends recognize Sky for who she really is – a funny, loyal young woman with a huge heart -- whose superpowers only add to her awesomeness.  But for Skylar, nothing comes easy. Everything seems to be on shaky ground – her budding romantic relationship with Milo, her ability to help Dana find Lacey, even her friendship with Calvin.

Suz: It’s that very human mix of vulnerabilities and strengths that make Skylar so special.

Mel: We hope readers see Wild Sky as not just a really exciting, action-packed adventure, but a story about Skylar’s quest – and really every teenage girl’s quest -- to own her awesome.

Suz: Because we truly believe that everyone is born with abilities that – no matter how seemingly small or insignificant -- should be recognized and celebrated! It is our differences that make us Greater-Than.

Exclusive Wild Sky Excerpt:

I wish I could say I’d never witnessed a windshield shatter before, but I’d been in a terrible car accident a few years back, so I knew exactly what it looked and sounded like.

There’s a weird silence that happens immediately after something like that, in which everything seemed to occur in slo-mo. I forced my mouth to move.

“Gunshot!” I shouted, because I could see both Cal and Garrett looking wildly around, trying to process exactly what that noise was and what had just happened. “Bullet to car window! Over to the right.”

The broken windshield belonged to a beat-up sedan parked two slots down from us in the Sav’A’Buck lot. Someone had fired a gun, just once, probably from somewhere near the grocery store’s front doors, judging from that broken front window. Shards of glass made tinkling sounds as they careened off the front of the car and onto the pavement.

“Gunman at the store door, get down get down get down!” Calvin shouted, and I stupidly turned to look instead of diving onto the floor of his car, and he grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me down just as the shooter must’ve flipped the switch from one shot to massacre, and the gun began going off, popping bullets through the air.

BOOM BOOM BOOM POP BOOM!

I braced for them to hit Cal’s car, covering my head as I prepared for a rain of glass, but the man with the giant gun must’ve been pointing it in a different direction, because I heard the ping of punctured metal and breaking glass, but it wasn’t from our car.

I could hear someone screaming—high-pitched and frantic—even as Garrett yelled, “Calvin, drive!”

“Don’t,” I told Cal as I closed my eyes and focused on that glimpse I’d seen before he’d pulled me to relative safety.

Single gunman. Carrying…

A big gun. And something else…?

I focused on calling up the image, and yes, he was carrying some- thing under his left arm, some kind of brightly colored sack, with his assault rifle tucked into his right elbow—this tall, broad man, maybe twenty years old, buzz cut, scar above his eyebrow.

That screaming—it had been a child’s voice. She was silent now, but I realized with a flash that I hadn’t seen a colorful bag but instead the cheerfully patterned clothing of a little girl. That man with the gun was abducting a little girl. And I bet I knew why.

“Gimme!” I said and reached back to grab one of the water guns from beside Garrett.

“Sky!” Cal exclaimed. “Don’t—”

I didn’t wait to hear what he thought I shouldn’t do. I’d yanked my hood up over my head, hiding my red hair and as much of my face as I could, and I was already out of the car and on the asphalt, heading toward the man who was still firing that gun. He was using it not to kill, thank goodness, but to keep the little girl’s family from following him. I could see with just one glance that she was unconscious, as he tossed her none too carefully into the passenger seat of his shiny black Bimmer. He had a nice car. And I was pretty sure I knew how he’d paid for it—by kidnapping little girls like this one, like Sasha, too, and selling them to the Destiny makers.

Mother. Effer.

“Hey! ” I belted out. But my voice was buried beneath the cacophony of his weapon. I had to move fast, or he was going to get into his snazzy car and that little girl would be gone.

I took a deep breath and concentrated. Water versus bullets? Not normally much of a contest there.

But I could do this. Couldn’t I?

Suddenly, I heard Dana’s voice in my head, shouting Fail! Fail! What are you doing, Bubble Gum? You have no backup, you have no plan!

What was I doing? This was insane.

Still thoughts. I closed my eyes and pictured Milo. I breathed him, I felt him, I heard him. Still thoughts, Sky. Just let it go…

And in that moment in which I was specifically not thinking about what I was about to do or what the consequences would be if I failed, I felt and then saw my enormous pile of plastic water pistols—there were sixteen of them total—shoot out from the backseat of Calvin’s car and through the passenger side window that I’d left open. They streamed toward me like metal particles toward a magnet.

Then, just as quickly, all but one—a little green one—swooped in front of me before lining up and hovering in midair.

The little green plastic water gun zoomed over to the man with the real gun and smacked him in the face.

“What the hell…?” He fumbled his weapon as he turned to see me standing there—me and that collection of water guns—and his eyes widene


“Holy shit, Sky!” With the noise from the assault weapon silenced, I could hear Garrett shouting, and I winced inwardly because he’d used my name.

But whatever he said next was muffled, and Cal’s voice rang out instead. “Hoshitski, look out!”

It was an intentional misdirect, and I tried to stand like a Hoshitski might, no doubt surly from years of being teased. I pitched my voice lower and ordered, “Drop it! Now!”

The gunman’s wide eyes narrowed, and we both knew he wasn’t going to drop his weapon, so before he could turn and kill me, I let loose my TK and blasted him. All of those plastic guns shot water from their barrels with the intensity of sixteen narrow but powerful fire hoses, and it sent the man down onto the ground so hard that I heard his head as it smacked against the pavement.

The gun he’d been holding clattered to the ground.

All of my weapons ceased water-fire and dropped onto the pavement in front of the unconscious shooter.


The silence that followed was eerie. I felt a little dazed, standing there with a single, silly-looking pink water gun still in my hand, staring at the downed man and his big real gun, and then over at the bullet-riddled storefront of the Sav’A’Buck.

***Giveaway!***

Three winners will receive a copy of The Night Sky series by Suzanne and Melanie Brockmann!


Thank you so much to everyone who allowed us to be a part of this tour - and best of luck to anybody who enters the giveaway!


ARC Review: Surviving Ice by K.A. Tucker

Title: Surviving Ice (Burying Water #4) 
Author: K.A. Tucker
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance  
Source: NetGalley 
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: October 27th 2015
Add it to Goodreads / Pre-Order on Amazon 

Summary: 
Ivy, a talented tattoo artist who spent the early part of her twenties on the move, is finally looking for a place to call home. She thinks she might have found it in San Francisco, but all that changes when she witnesses a terrible crime. She’s ready to pack up her things yet again, when a random encounter with a stranger keeps her in the city, giving her reason to stay after all. That is, until Ivy discovers that their encounter wasn’t random. Not at all...

Review:


I am still giggling from the last page of the book (That I happened to finish 5 days ago...) It was such an Ivy thing to do. I went out on a limb reading a NA from an author I never heard of, and starting it in the middle of a series. But I am glad to say that I really enjoyed Surviving Ice

The biggest thing that stood out in this book is Ivy, her strength and the icy exterior that she built for herself. She is sassy, quick tongued and doesn't let others stand in the way of the things she wants.  Some are qualities that most characters loose as they get close to the love interest, but I love that K.A. let Ivy keep the most important qualities about herself. We get to know about Sebastian's mission from the start, nothing is hidden from the reader. He is built, hot, and ex-military. As the reader, I wanted to hate Sebastian for lying to Ivy and the things he had to hide from her. But I couldn't. 

Typically books with insta-lust bother me. I don't know why. It happens in real life too. But in this case it didn't. I think it was able to push the story along. Ivy wasn't the girl who likes to be wined and dined, so the whole "you're really hot, and I want to do you." thing worked. My only problem was the sex in Surviving Ice. It seemed very rushed, like it was only put in to mark some mile stone or because it had to be. Honestly, it was a bit of a let down. I expected a little more. 

Overall I really enjoyed Surviving Ice. Sebastian and Ivy's easy banter, and romance was enjoyable to read about, and I wish there was more. This book can be read as a standalone (Which I did!) and not miss anything important! 

Rating:


Blog Tour: Faceless by Ashley Sheinmel (Interview + Giveaway)
















Title: Faceless
Author: Alyssa Sheinmel
Genre: Contemporary 
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 29, 2015
Add it to Goodreads! 

Summary:
When Maisie gets into a terrible accident, her face is partially destroyed. She's lucky enough to get a face transplant--but how do you live your life when you can't even recognize yourself anymore? She was a runner, a girlfriend, a good student...a normal girl. Now all that has changed. As Maisie discovers how much her looks did--and didn't--shape her relationship to the world, she has to redefine her own identity, and figure out what "lucky" really means. From Alyssa Sheinmel, the acclaimed author of Second Star, this is a lyrical and gripping novel that will challenge readers to think about how we create and define ourselves.

Buy it:  AMAZON | iBOOKS | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | INDIEBOUND

Guest Post: 



Where did your inspiration for Faceless come from? 


A while before my first book, The Beautiful Between, was published, I began writing some notes for another book idea, the story of a girl who’d been in an accident that changed her face forever, a girl who would try to figure out how much of who she was was tied to what she looked like. But eventually I set the idea aside, because I was never quite sure how to tell her story.


Luckily, my wonderful editor Emily Seife shared an article from a 2012 edition of The New Yorker about a man who’d received a full face transplant. I know it sounds corny, but I honestly felt like it was meant to be, like this was the story I’d been waiting to write.


Was it difficult to write Maisie's story?


At times, it was.  I wanted to get this right, and I had a lot to learn about the science behind face transplants.  I was fortunate enough to find doctors who would answer all my questions, along with amazing articles about the procedure.

But writing Maisie’s story was also hard because I loved my main character from the very first page – and from the very first page, I knew that she had a tough journey ahead of her.  

If you could put yourself in any of your character's shoes, who would it be and why? 


I have to admit I have a soft-spot for Maisie’s best friend, Serena.  She doesn’t have the highest word-count of all the book’s characters, but she is a wonderful friend to Maisie, despite their differences – Serena is much gigglier and more playful than Maisie, even before her accident.  She seems like the kind of person who can find the fun in just about everything, a trait I really admire.  


The cover is stunning! Was it what you were expecting it to look like? Or did you have something else in mind? 



Thank you – I love the cover, too!  One of the things that I love most about the cover-process is that it’s a part of the book that’s in someone else’s hands, and it shows someone else’s interpretation of the story.  

Lastly, are you currently working on anything that you can tell us about? 


The sequel to The Haunting of the Sunshine Girl which I co-wrote with the very cool – and very talented – Paige McKenzie (who also happens to be the star of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl web series!), will publish in March 2016. The new book is called The Awakening of Sunshine Girl, and we hope that fans of the first book will love where the story is taking Sunshine next! On my own, I have a few ideas percolating, but nothing quite ready to share...yet.

Trailer:



About Alyssa B. Sheinmel:


I was born in Stanford, California, and even though I moved across the country to New York when I was six years old, I still think of myself as a California girl.

Like so many writers, I grew up loving books. I loved stories so much that when there was nothing to read, I wrote my own stories just to give myself something to read. And when there was no pen and paper to be had, I made up stories and acted them out by myself. I played all the parts, and I was never bored.

WEBSITE | BLOG | TWITTER | TUMBLR | GOODREADS

Giveaway:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of FACELESS. US Only.


Follow the Tour: 

Week One:
9/21/2015- Bookhounds yaInterview
9/22/2015- I'm Shelf-ishReview
9/23/2015- The Cover ContessaGuest Post
9/24/2015- Enchanted ExcurseReview
9/25/2015- The Book Bratz- Interview

Week Two:
9/28/2015- My So-Called Book ReviewsReview
9/29/2015- Paranormal Book ClubExcerpt
9/30/2015- Once Upon A TwilightReview
10/1/2015- Curling Up With A Good BookInterview
10/2/2015- Me, My Shelf and IReview



Blog Tour: Very in Pieces by Megan Frazer Blakemore (Teaser + Giveaway)



Title: Very in Pieces
Author: Megan Frazer Blakemore
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: September 29th 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Summary:
Very Sales-Woodruff is done being a good girl. Done being the only responsible one in a family that’s unraveling. Done being the obliging girlfriend in a relationship that’s sinking. Done saying no to what she wants—like Dominic, her rebellious classmate. With her mom’s drinking, her dad’s extended absences from home, and her younger sister, Ramona, running wild, the path Very has always seen for herself doesn’t seem to matter anymore. At the same time, Very’s grandmother, a poet known less for her work and more for her exploits with the likes of Andy Warhol and Arthur Miller, is slipping away. If everything else can fall to pieces, why can’t she?





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Follow the Very In Pieces by Megan Frazer Blakemore Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.




Megan Frazer Blakemore is an author for children and young adults. She lives with her husband and children in Maine. She has worked in both school and public libraries, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in library science at Simmons SLIS.






2 winners will receive a signed copy of Very In Pieces and a signed copy of Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Megan Frazer Blakemore (US Only)
1 winner will receive a signed copy of Very In Pieces and a signed copy of Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Megan Frazer Blakemore (INT)






Into The Dangerous World by Julie Chibbaro (Guest Post + Giveaway)

About The Book:



Into The Dangerous World
By: Julie Chibbaro
Artwork By: JM Superville Sovak
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Publisher: Viking/Penguin
Pages: 352

Ror lives to draw—to her, it’s like breathing; it’s how she understands life. Raised on a Staten Island commune, she’s never attended a day of school, and knows little of the outside world. When her paranoid father burns down the commune with himself inside, Ror, her mother, and sister end up in a homeless residence in Manhattan. There, she runs into trouble—and love—with Trey, the leader of Noise Ink, a graffiti crew.

 On the city’s streets, and in its museums and galleries, Ror finds herself pulled in different directions. Her father wanted her to make classic art. Noise Ink insists she stay within their lines. Her art teacher urges her to go to college. But what does she want? Ror’s soul-searching—expressed in remarkable drawings and sharp-edged prose, set in the gritty Manhattan of 1984—is cinematic in its scope, and its seamless blend of text and art makes Into the Dangerous World a groundbreaking event in young adult
fiction.

Amazon | Goodreads | B&N | IndieBound

  Guest Post: 



Where did your inspiration for Into the Dangerous World come from?

It’s hard to trace back the inspiration for a book that has been inside your head for 20 years, but if I had to, I would say it came from being around artists all my life, and being completely mystified by what drives them. I couldn’t draw a picture if someone put a gun to my head, and maybe that makes me even more curious. And after they’re done creating a work of art, what do artists do with it? What, I wondered, does the trajectory of a successful artist’s life look like?
Being a young adult author, I decided to take on the start of a superstar’s career (I imagine that Ror will be a superstar someday). How does the world look to someone like that? Ror is a very visual person who speaks through her drawings, she’s sensitive to the way things look, how colors taste and sound; she feels herself in the world in a spatial way, and how she fits. I learned a new way of thinking from her.
As I wrote, I found my inspiration constantly refreshed by working with JM, the artist for the book, who is also my husband. Together, we pushed beyond the surface of graffiti, into the heads of the people who do it. We uncovered a whole world of art that we’d never really thought about! Interviewing graffiti and street artists helped me to rethink my notions of fame. Underground artists aren’t as interested in the more obvious trappings of celebrity; rather, they appreciate having their work seen, more than themselves seen. We discovered that crews who work together often feel like families – that the members may be even more of a true family than the one at home (if they even have a home).
Art is everywhere, and inside most people there is a creative spark that often gets snuffed out. I wanted to use that spark to poke around. I wanted to show that there are many ways to be an artist, to express yourself, to live a full life, despite hardships and pain. I wanted to show the basic truth I uncovered: that the process itself can be the thing that sustains you.

About The Authors:

Julie Chibbaro and Jean-Marc Superville Sovak are the husband and wife duo behind Into the Dangerous World (Viking 2015). Julie Chibbaro was born into a family of artists, and also married one. She grew up in NYC during the explosion of graffiti art. She has written two historical novels, Redemption, which won the American Book Award, and Deadly, which won the National Jewish Book Award. JM Superville Sovak is half-Trini, half-Czech, half-Canadian. His fourth half is spent making art, for which he earned his M.F.A. from Bard College in NY. They both live in Beacon, NY.


Bonus:



For those of you that purchase a copy of INTO THE DANGEROUS WORLD any time during the official book tour (August 18-September 30) will receive a one of a kind #IntoTheDangerousWorld pack filled with lots of goodies. (While supplies last) To qualify you must send proof of purchase to amydelrosso(at)gmail(dot)com.

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