Sunday, August 25, 2013

Torch Blast



When sign ups opened for this blast, I jumped at the chance. I definitely had to be a part of this. I am such a fan of Cambria's work, but more importantly, this looks like the type of book I would not only want to read, but would write myself. So without further ado, let me share more with you about Cambria Hebert and TORCH...





Cambria Hebert is a latte sipping author of the Heven & Hell series, the Death Escorts series, and the Take It Off series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children (both human and furry) where she is plotting her next book. You can find out more about Cambria and her work by visiting http://www.cambriahebert.com






TORCH is the first book in Cambria's Take It Off series which is New Adult Contemporary.  To tell you the truth, I'm very excited to be able to read the book. 




If you can’t take the heat… stay away from the flame.
Katie Parks has been on her own since the age of fifteen. All she’s ever wanted is a place to call her own—a life that is wholly hers that no one can take away. She thought she finally had it, but with the strike of a single match, everything she worked so hard for is reduced to a pile of smoking ash. And she almost is too.
Now she’s being stalked by someone who’s decided it’s her time to die. The only thing standing in the path of her blazing death is sexy firefighter Holt Arkain.
Katie’s body might be safe with Holt… but her heart is another story.
As the danger heats up, sparks fly and the only thing Katie knows for sure is that her whole life is about to go up in flames.


To find out more about Cambria and her work, please visit the following sites, and be sure to click all of the appropriate 'like' and 'follow' buttons to stay up to date on all of her work and any and all giveaways that might be going on. I promise you won't want to miss out.


Also, don't forget to add TORCH to your To Read lists on GoodReads here, or you can purchase TORCH using the links below.









Tuesday, August 20, 2013

ARC Review of Megan Curd's Steel Lily


AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She’s a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued.

But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn’t any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

…Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything…including the fate of your world.


As I'm sure you have all heard me say at some point or another, the dystopian genre isn't a genre that I normally like to read. However, in recent months I have picked up a couple of books in the genre that have shown me that even though it isn't my preferred reading material, there are some that have sparked my interest. Steel Lily is absolutely one of those books.

Megan has imbued elemental manipulation into a new world with a steampunk flavor, and I am head over heels in love with it. I can totally see the world going in that direction, minus the elemental "magic" if you will. She has this way of telling a story that makes you look at the world around you and say to yourself, "Self, if reincarnation is real, I want to come back and live in this world that Megan Curd has created within these pages, because it sounds completely badass!" No really, you'll say that to yourself while you read this book, I did. I'm not making that up. But you'll only want to do it if you can be like Avery. Trust me.

The characters in this book, Avery, Alice, Jaxon, Sari, Legs... They could be your friends, your classmates, your love interests... They are well thought out, highly developed, and each and every one of them (even the villains, yes I used the plural form) are even more pivotal to the story line than just to give it more depth. They all play a distinct role, roles that give credence to the overall theme. It's this that ties them all together, and I fear that it is this that may tear them apart.

There were places within the story where I literally laughed out loud, and then others where I found myself fighting tears. There are also places where I had to take a step back and say, "Okay, remember, this isn't real and no matter what you cannot hurt this person." Yes, readers, it was THAT intense. And THAT my friends, is a sign of a damn good book. When you want to climb into the pages and hurt someone for hurting someone else.

All in all, I am completely hooked and I now have an intense need to know where this series is going to take us. Will these fragile (because they are extremely fragile) ties that bind this group of misfits together be enough to hold them to one another? How far can they be pushed before they break? What will it take for them to learn to trust outside of themselves? Because ultimately, that is what this series will be about. Learning to trust when you can barely trust yourself.

Great job, Megan. I'm anxiously awaiting Iron Pendulum.