Amanda Grace is stopping by today with her character Nick for his this or thats. =) 


Caramel or chocolate? Caramel.

Fast or slow? I’ll go with.. .slow.

Love or lust? Love.  But lusting after things is fun.

Read or watch tv? Read.

Dog or cat? Dog.

Paris or Italy? Paris, because france bought PRADA & PREJUDICE and I love the cover. They must be very chic over there.

Shoes or barefeet? SLIPPERS!

Fall or Winter? Hmm. Winter.

House or apartment? Apartment.

Kids or no kids? KIDS! YOU CAN’T HAVE MY KID.

Wii or Xbox? Wii. Preferably with a dance party game so that I may conduct a dance-off. 

Blue or green? Green.
 

I never meant for anyone to get hurt. All I wanted to do that night was make a play for Carter Davis. His heartless rejection was mortifying, but people got the wrong idea when they saw me leaving his bedroom, crying. That’s how rumors of rape started.

Now girls at school are pouring out their sympathy to me. Guys too. But not everyone’s on my side. The school has become a war zone and the threats are getting scary. What began as poetic justice has morphed into something bigger-forcing me to make a terrible choice.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
March 13, 2012
Delacorte

Synopsis:
It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?
No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria’s a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan’s a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they’ve got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can’t run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry into this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story.

My Review:

WANDERLOVE is a gorgeous, heart-warming YA novel that will make you laugh, cry, and laugh some more. Honestly, it takes a lot for a contemporary to touch me as much as WANDERLOVE did. I felt like I truly connected with Bria and I could understand where she was coming from. She’s not at all predictable, and like everyone, she has to grow and learn from her experiences. WANDERLOVE is definitely now one of my favorite YA contemporaries!

I don’t know how Bria did it all. I’ve been to Costa Rica and Guatemala before, but I never experienced it like Bria did. The hostels, backpacking, and icky food made me cringe, but it did give me a new appreciation for people who do backpack through other countries. There’s one speech that Rowan makes in the novel that really touched me and gave me a new perspective on people who live in these countries. One thing that really drew me to Bria was her struggle to find who she was as a person. She previously let her ex define her, but now that he’s gone, she doesn’t know what to do.

Beyond Bria, there’s Rowan. Rowan is one of those love interests who has a shady background, but who’s trying to move past it all and look toward the future. He’s got a soft and funny side to him that gives him even more dimension and is sure to get girls falling for him. But what I really appreciate about Rowan is what he did for Bria–he helps her come out of her shell and gives her these experiences that are sure to last her for a lifetime.

Oh, and did I mention the drawings in WANDERLOVE??? They add to Bria’s artistic side and give you more insight into Bria’s inner self. I don’t want to give away what I noticed about them in relation to each of the four parts of the novel, but I was excited when I realized what Hubbard was doing with them!

Hubbard has crafted one of those amazing novels that will stick with you long after the final page. I ripped through WANDERLOVE within a day and I only wish that I had drawn it out longer.

My Rating:

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Simon & Schuster

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago – surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous – and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion…by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price – now that she has more to lose than ever.

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton
Simon Pulse

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her.After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari.

Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine….

The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Penguin

Dying of a broken heart is just the beginning…. Welcome to forever.

BRIE’S LIFE ENDS AT SIXTEEN: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn’t love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally.

But now that she’s D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there’s Patrick, Brie’s mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after.

With Patrick’s help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she’s ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces?

Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr
HarperTeen

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments dark and light by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from beneath the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

From the gentle tones of a storyteller’s cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr’s Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with…or to fear.

Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa Marr’s stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Today Sophie Jordan revealed the cover for HIDDEN, the final novel in the FIRELIGHT trilogy. I am sooooo in love with it!

A dangerous journey.
Shattered bonds.
Undying passion.

Jacinda was supposed to bond with Cassian, the “prince” of their pride.
But she resisted long before she fell in love with Will—a human and, worse,
a hunter. When she ran away with Will, it ended in disaster, with Cassian’s sister, Miram, captured. Weighed down by guilt, Jacinda knows she must rescue
her to set things right. Yet to do so she will have to venture deep into the heart of enemy territory.

The only way Jacinda can reach Miram is by posing as a prisoner herself,
though once she assumes that disguise, things quickly spiral out of her control.
As she learns more about her captors, she realizes that even if Will and Cassian
can carry out their part of the plan, there’s no guarantee they’ll all make it out alive. But what Jacinda never could have foreseen is that escaping would be
only the beginning….

Loyalties are tested and sacrifices made in the explosive conclusion to Sophie Jordan’s Firelight trilogy.

Synopsis:
I never meant for anyone to get hurt. All I wanted to do that night was make a play for Carter Wellesley. His heartless rejection was mortifying, but people got the wrong idea when they saw me leaving his bedroom, crying. That’s how rumors of rape started.
Now girls at school are pouring out their sympathy to me. Guys too. But not everyone’s on my side. The school has become a war zone and the threats are getting scary. What began as poetic justice has morphed into something bigger—forcing me to make a terrible choice.

My Review:
IN TOO DEEP is a powerful YA that explores the danger of rumors and their lasting affects on people. Grace’s novel deeply affected me, and while there were some flaws, they were easy to overlook. I look forward to more from Grace.

Sam isn’t perfect. In fact, she is far from that. She is completely humiliated by Carter, and feels broken. But she didn’t mean for the false rumors to spread about her being assaulted by Carter. Sure, he is a complete jerk who has no respect for women, but rape is pretty serious. She is so torn about what to do about it, and it only gets worse when Carter’s friends begin threatening her.

I felt really bad for Sam. She has such a tough life, and just when things are starting to look up, the false rumors pop up and she fears their consequences. She wants so badly to correct them, but she is already “in too deep” and can’t seem to get herself out. I was rooting for things to start going her way. While I did find her annoying at times, I could understand where she was coming from

The pacing of IN TOO DEEP was a bit of a problem for me. I felt like things happened way too fast considering. I don’t want to give too much away, but the whole Nick and Sam thing was really weird. They have known each other for so long with nothing, and then it happens??? It just didn’t add up for me.

While IN TOO DEEP did have its problems, I enjoyed myself overall. Grace has created a fascinating and relatable storyline that readers out there are sure to gobble up.

My Rating:

For Review:
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford
Vampire’s Kiss by Veronica Wolff (I’m quoted in the press release!)
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
The Rivals by Daisy Whitney
Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein

Thanks to:
Macmillan
Harper Collins
Penguin
Little Brown
T.M. Goeglein

Synopsis:
Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that’s just fine by her. She’s got her friends – the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She’s got her art – and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it’s hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they’re dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

My Review:
Full of laughs and cute moments galore, THE FINE ART OF TRUTH OR DARE is one 2012 book you are for sure going to want on your keeper shelf. After reading some pretty dark and dismal books, it was just what I needed for a little uplifting. Ella’s perspective is a delight to read from and I relished in all her experiences at Willing. While some instances in the story were dramatic and less than believable, Ella’s wit and Alex’s charm more than made up for them.

Ella is a sweet, insecure girl whose adoration with a long deceased Edward Willing is quite interesting. Her “conversations” with him speak of her subconscious feelings about the world and her place in it and give us insight into who Ella really is. Ella’s interactions with Alex have so many sparks! Every time they are together the chemistry is palpable and they work so well together!

Alex is a bit of a mystery at first. With the way that Ella sees things in her life, she isn’t quite sure if he is a genuine nice guy or just another arrogant and snobby Phillite. This is a contemporary romance though, so there had to be something there. And boy is there ever something!! That boy is sure to make your heart pitter patter with the way he speaks to Ella. I am in love!

I hate books where the heroine is a loner without any friends at all. This definitely isn’t that kind of book, fortunately!Frankie and Sadie are Ella’s two awesome friends who I am so grateful for. They truly make an impact on Ella’s life and she wouldn’t be the same without them.

The one thing that just rubbed me wrong about the novel is Amanda. She is so hateful and vicious to Ella that is was quite hard to believe. They have hardly spoken to one another, yet Amanda’s words she spits out at Ella are extreme and VERY mean. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think someone would be that mean to someone they hardly ever interact with. It isn’t realistic.

Besides the whole Amanda thing, I think you will definitely have a great time reading this one! The laughs are aplenty and my heart is still recovering from all of the fluttering when Alex comes on the scene! Take a chance on THE FINE ART OF TRUTH OR DARE!


My Rating:

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
February 14, 2012
Knopf Books for Young Readers

Synopsis:
Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she’s going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He’s out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy’s stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she’s managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they’re suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

My Review:

GRAFFITI MOON is a realistic and yet somehow magical novel that will keep you up during the late hours of the night. Crowley has crafted two multi-dimensional characters who are easy to connect with and each so complicated that you just want to uncover everything that makes them tick. I am SO happy that I picked this fantastic YA up and look forward to more from Crowley.

Lucy made me laugh, pine, dream, and cry with her. Her emotions are so real that I couldn’t help but experience them all with her. I yearned with her for Shadow, though I was at least fortunate to know who he was from the start. The love that she feels for his art and the craving for a romance made me sympathetic with her and I just wanted her to be fulfilled.

Ed, or who Lucy knows as Shadow, is a lonely yet he has such a raw passion and talent for art. The graffiti that he paints isn’t what you would normally think graffiti is–it isn’t vulgar at all but an expression of who he is and what he sees in life. I could clearly picture each of his gorgeous scenes and I could see why Lucy wanted something with Shadow. The most complicated part is that they have a bit of a shaky history and Lucy doesn’t know he’s Shadow. This makes things so much more complicated and intriguing.

GRAFFITI MOON is a contemporary YA that I absolutely loved! Full of raw scenes that will have your emotions going, you are sure to enjoy it!

My Rating:

Marie Lamba, author of DRAWN is stopping by for a guest post about bad guys today.

Bad guys can be seriously tough characters for an author to write.  But every story needs them.  What would Star Wars be without Darth Vadar? Or Harry Potter without He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?  But writing these characters in a way that makes them believable is tricky.

You want to create huge problems for your hero, and that requires a villain and some true evil.  But write about a person who is all bad and you have a cardboard character.  Like those villains in the silent flicks who twirled their moustaches while tying the damsel to the train tracks.

In my new novel Drawn I had to create several baddies. The book is about teen artist Michelle De Freccio, who moves to England hoping for a more normal life.  Almost immediately she starts drawing a guy from the 1400’s. When she meets him (Christopher) at the town’s castle, things really get strange…and when she follows Christopher into the Middle Ages, well, stranger still.  The novel needed villains in the present AND in the past, so I had my bad-guy work cut out for me.

The secret, I found, is to show another side to your villain. Even if it’s just for a moment, you want a glimpse of someone who means well at times, or who is wounded in some way, or who truly believes they are doing the right thing.  If I can get the reader for just a moment to see this side of the bad person, then I know they’ll have a different view of things.  That they may even understand how the bad person went so wrong.

Here’s a moment from Drawn when I try to do just that… In the following scene Michelle discovers that her visits into the past have seriously begun to alter history and to wound Christopher’s fate. At this point, she’s started to really fall for him, so seeing history books that accuse him of terrible things is frightening indeed. Michelle has pulled book after book off the Academy’s shelf, searching for answers. Her modern-day nemesis Constance takes this opportunity to get Michelle into trouble with Constance’s mother who is the Academy’s Headmistress:

I blink and see Headmistress Hunter looming over me. Constance peers smugly from behind her.
“Such disorder,” the Headmistress says between tight lips, taking in the jumble of books at my feet. She’s almost trembling with anger. “Horrific. We do not treat reading material so shabbily, Miss De Freccio.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry.”
“The Academy expects appropriate behavior both in school and out. We pride ourselves on being the best.” She sniffs as if I clearly don’t qualify.
Constance grins.
“Clean this at once,” the Headmistress is saying. “Understand, this will go on your record. And on your father’s. This doesn’t bode well for his future here.”
Constance’s grin fades.
“But this isn’t his fault,” I say and hate the pleading tone in my voice. “Please don’t let it affect my dad, Headmistress.”
Constance whispers, “Mother, I don’t think—”
“Are you criticizing me?”
“No, of course not.” Constance looks at the floor.

In that brief scene the reader knows that Constance didn’t mean to endanger Michelle’s father’s position at the Academy. We see Constance has some sort of a soul and some limits, and that she is terrified of her own mother.

As for the villains in the medieval part of the book? This was a tough one because there is a mystery intertwined in the plot.  Who is the traitor? Who murders the Earl? And who is killing off all the courtiers? What if all signs point to Christopher, the young man (er, ghost?) Michelle has now come to love?  I had to spread doubts and clues in a way that gave info but also made the reader (and Michelle) wonder who can really be trusted. I can’t tell you who the real villains are without spoiling the book for you, but when all is revealed, you can bet the reader understands why the bad ’uns are doing what they do.

Balancing good and bad in a way that’s convincing can be a real challenge for any writer.  Put in too much good, and the villain is not a real threat. Put in too much bad, and you’ve created someone that’s ridiculous and unbelievable. I tried very hard to balance my villains for just the right feel… I hope readers will find it all works.

Actually, a review about Drawn that just popped up on the site Author Chronicles says: “not a single character is one-dimensional—each one has flaws, strengths, and depths to them. Even the snotty “Queen Bee” girl, Constance, who could easily have been a stereotype, has flashes of a soul at war with the front she puts up.”
Not all bad!

Marie Lamba (marielamba.com) is author of acclaimed young adult novels including What I Meant… (Random House), Over My Head, and Drawn. When she isn’t writing or sympathizing with bad guys, she’s working as an Associate Literary Agent at The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in NYC.

About Drawn:
Teen artist Michelle De Freccio moves to England in search of a normal life…instead she finds a hot medieval ghost with a sketchy past.
It all begins when a strange guy appears in Michelle’s drawings. When she actually meets him at the town’s castle, she’s unmistakably drawn to him. But something is definitely not right. For starters, he wears medieval garb, talks of ancient murders and tends to disappear each time they kiss.
Could he possibly be a ghost? Could Michelle be losing her mind? Or has she simply uncovered a love so timeless it’s spanned the centuries…

Praise for Drawn:
“A lushly romantic ghost story…captivating and haunting. I didn’t want it to end.” –Cyn Balog, author of paranormal YA novels Fairy Tale, Sleepless, and Starstruck
“Mysterious and enchanting, DRAWN is a breath of fresh air. If you are looking for a page turner with a unique twist, then look no further.” —TwilightMOMS.com
“…a wonderfully spooky tale of romance and discovery. It’s a magical exploration of the unconquerable power of love.  Highly recommended!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay
“In DRAWN, Marie Lamba deftly entwines romance and mystery, past and present, into a page-turning adventure. Buy it today and I promise you’ll be finished reading far too quickly!” —Joy Nash, USA Today bestselling paranormal romance author of The Immortals series, The Grail King and The Unforgiven

You can purchase DRAWN at Amazon HERE

Today Ember from Article 5 is stopping by for an interview.

You and Chase were close childhood friends.  What is your favorite memory of Chase before he became a solider?

Oh, um…there were a lot of good memories. Good ones, and some really good ones. This one time he packed this whole lunch with stuff from the soup kitchen and took me out to the state part on his motorcycle. We didn’t have a car, and I hadn’t been farther than walking distance in a long time, and I’d forgotten there were places still like that. That hadn’t been beaten down by the War. Anyway, we went out there and he took me to this place he used to go to with his parents when he was little. This cliff, overlooking the park. The leaves were changing, and the sun was out and everything seemed alive, you know? We sat there all day. Talking. Not talking. Watching the clouds. Laughing about stupid stuff. And then we played Truth or Dare and…things changed with us.

I know you got persecuted for Article 5 of the moral Statures.  Other than Article 5, which article of the Moral Statures is in your opinion the most ridicules?

The most ridiculous? That’s a tough one. They’re all ridiculous. But I guess if I had to choose I’d say Article 4 – the one about observing traditional male and female roles. Men have to serve the FBR if drafted. Women have to dress a certain way, and talk a certain way, and BE a certain way. I hate it.

It’s the one that took Chase away.

I hear you and your mom got separated after she was arrested.  If you had a chance to see your mom again, what would you say to her?

Easy: Run. Keep running and don’t stop.

You got sent to a harsh reformatory after your mom was arrested.  How were you able to deal with your time there?  I hear it was an awful environment.

Awful. Yeah. It was pretty bad. I’ve got the scars to prove it. The only way I got through was to dedicate every waking moment to plotting my escape. I gathered things when I could – food that would last, extra clothes, stuff like that. I made a mental map of the facility. I had to be ready, you know? The chance to run could come at any time. And to pass the time until it did, I had my roommate. We were friends. At least, I thought so. I doubt she does anymore…

What are three words that describe the current system of government?  What about Chase?

Just three words for the government? I’ve got about a million – and not one of them would the Moral Statutes deem appropriate for a lady to say. How about these: tyrannical, deceitful, and dangerous.

Chase…that’s harder. Um…I don’t know. Is he going to read this? Not that I care. I mean, he probably wouldn’t care what I said anyway. It’s just three little words, right?

How about: I miss you.

Thanks for stopping by!