St. Martin's has a great new promotion for Fated, book one in #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël's new Soul Seekers series. When fans pre-order Fated in any format (print, e-book or audiobook) and submit their receipt, they will receive a pair of soul seeker inspired earrings–while supplies last. They look so cute! Check out the rules by visiting http://stmartins.com/fatedpreorder St. Martin's be mailing out the earrings approx. 4-6 weeks after Fated goes on-sale (5/22). If you want to read more about Fated, you can read an excerpt & a special bonus scene on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/soulseekersseries.
Fated by Alyson No ël Publisher: St. Martin's Press (May 22nd, 2012) Reading Level: Young Adult Hardcover: 308 pages Series: Soul Seekers #1 The first book in a magnificent new series about a girl who can navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead by #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël.
Lately strange things have been happening to Daire Santos. Animals follow her, crows mock her, and glowing people appear out of nowhere. Worried that Daire is having a nervous breakdown, her mother packs her off to stay in the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico with a grandmother she’s never met.
There she crosses paths with Dace, a gorgeous guy with unearthly blue eyes who she’s encountered before… but only in her dreams. And she’ll get to know her grandmother—a woman who recognizes Daire’s bizarre episodes for what they are. A call to her true destiny as a Soul Seeker, one who can navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead. Her grandmother immediately begins teaching her to harness her powers—but it’s an art that must be mastered quickly. Because Dace’s brother is an evil shape-shifter who’s out to steal her powers. Now Daire must embrace her fate as a Soul Seeker and find out if Dace is one guy she’s meant to be with… or if he’s allied with the enemy she’s destined to destroy. I can't wait to read Fated and I'm already in love with the cover. Anyone else excited to check out this new series?
The wonderful C.C. Hunter is here today to tell us 13 things we will learn from her newest book, Taken at Dusk.
Make sure to sign up below for a chance to win a copy!
Thirteen Things You’ll Learn From Taken at Dusk 1. The only thing worse than trying to help a woman with amnesia remember her name and life is trying to help a dead woman with amnesia remember hers.
2. Be careful what you wish for—you might just get it.. and the reality will probably not be anything like the fantasy.
3. The person you think is your enemy could just turn into a friend who'll do anything to save you.
4. The scariest thing in the world isn't ghosts or rogue vampires bent on murder—it's falling in love.
5. Explaining why you have a skunk curled up in your arms to your mom and your old best friend is as easy as eating a brownie while brushing your teeth.
6. We all make mistakes, which is why it's so important to practice forgiveness.
7. The only thing worse than a pissed-off shapeshifter is a pissed-off shapeshifter in love.
8. Sometimes the earth really does have to open up and swallow you whole before you can accept the truth that's right in front of you.
9. Vampires have no sense of humor.. especially when they get turned into a kangaroo.
10. Free will gives us choices, but even making the right choices can't change destiny.. and learning to accept that can be the most painful lesson of all.
11. People aren’t always who they say they are, even if you really want them to be.
12. Sometimes when you try to save someone, they end up saving you instead.
13. Never get between a dragon and a warlock on the war path.
Taken at Dusk by C.C. Hunter Publisher: St Martin's Press (April 10th, 2012) Reading Level: Young Adult Paperback: 400 pages Series: Shadow Falls #3 Step into Shadow Falls, a camp for teens with supernatural powers. Here friendship thrives, love takes you by surprise, and our hearts possess the greatest magic of all.
Kylie Galen wants the truth so badly she can taste it. The truth about who her real family is, the truth about which boy she’s meant to be with—and the truth about what her emerging powers mean. But she’s about to discover that some secrets can change your life forever… and not always for the better.
Just when she and Lucas are finally getting close, she learns that his pack has forbidden them from being together. Was it a mistake to pick him over Derek? And it’s not just romance troubling Kylie. An amnesia-stricken ghost is haunting her, delivering the frightful warning, someone lives and someone dies. As Kylie races to unravel the mystery and protect those she loves, she finally unlocks the truth about her supernatural identity, which is far different—and more astonishing—than she ever imagined.
Prize:
1 winner will receive a copy of Taken at Dusk.
Rules:
You must be at least 13 (or have permission) to enter.
Name and email must be provided.
Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
Contest is US only and ends April 27th.
Once contacted, the winner will have 48 hours to respond.
Today I have Leigh Evans here for a guest post. She's here to talk to us about mean writers and to highlight her upcoming release, The Thing About Weres.
Mean Writers—Why We Give our Heroines Such a Hard Time A friend said to me recently that my heroine takes a heck of an emotional battering, and wondered how I could do it. It’s hard to be cruel to your darlings, but it’s a fair point and I wanted to explain just why it was so necessary.
Let me get it right out front—Yes. I am super-crazy-nasty-mean to my characters. I spend hours thinking of ways to torment them. Actually, that’s an understatement. I spend days, sometimes weeks, thinking of ways to put the screws to my main character, Hedi Peacock.
Why?
Because the Mystwalker books chart the coming of age story of one Hedi Peacock, Half Were, half Fae, which means that I (the evil happiness destroyer) must lead my would-be-heroine from where she was in the first book, THE TROUBLE WITH FATE, to where she must be in the fourth and final book of the series.
Talk about mileage. Talk about rough terrain.
Leaping lizards. I never anticipated having to be so cruel. The Mystwalker series was going to be such lighter fare…
That is, until the evening I was the luckless recipient of a gift from my ever-loving muse. It was around 9:40 on a weeknight. Let me state quite firmly that (a) there was absolutely no wine involved and (b) I was neither daydreaming or on the cusp of sleep. As a matter of fact, I was on the couch, fully engaged in one of those true-murder programs. We were finally—finally!—getting to the bad guy reveal.
Then, all of the sudden, my vision clouded and I ‘saw’ something. Like a video clip, except not. I hate to sound all airy-fairy but for want of a better descriptor, it was a vision. Vivid. Real. Impossible to forget.
I remember thinking, “Oh, shit. ”
This was not in the plan. Hedi wasn’t supposed to ‘walk’ in different realms. How could I write that? It was too complicated and dark. Maybe I could forget what I saw? (Go away muse. Go bother some other urban fantasist).
But, unfortunately, I’d witnessed a world-changing event through a tear in a curtain and I couldn’t erase what I’d seen. (No matter how hard I tried). In the three second snippet, Hedi’s hair was down. She was walking barefoot along a mist-shrouded avenue of ancient trees. There was something odd about her gait. I kept replaying it until I finally understood.
Ah. I was seeing Hedi all grown up. The way she was meant to be.
Harder. Tougher. Wiser. And determined to be in control of her destiny.
How on earth would I be able to take my slacker girl to there? We’re talking some significant mileage. Everything she knew, everything she understood about herself and where she fit in life would have to be shook up. I’d have to take her on a ride that would toughen her hide and her heart.
Which brings us here, the second novel in the series—The THING ABOUT WERES. I took a chance here, crossing my fingers that my readers would follow me. Put bluntly, this book is the knee-capper. Every mistake, every seed not planted, will matter.
Because I believe heroes aren’t born; they’re made. And not all of us will pick up our bayonet and run willy-nilly through no man’s land, screaming a warrior’s cry—at least not at first prod. We might need to warm up to the idea. We might falter and make mistakes. Put bluntly, some of us need a damn good reason to scramble out of our foxhole.
Maybe a few of us need a hero’s quest tossed in our lap.
That being said, what’s some dark without some snark? There is comedy in this book and true love—sensual, demanding, provoking—that comes in the shape of a six-foot Were who is just too pretty for words. Also there is family—served two ways—in the form of a long lost brother and an entity trapped inside an amulet.
There is burgeoning hope. There is looming destiny. And ahead… yet another story still to come.
The Thing About Weres by Leigh Evans Published: St. Martin's (July 30th, 2013) Reading Level: Young Adult Paperback: 464 pages Series: Mystwalker, #2 Summary: THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
In the never-ending saga that is my love-hate relationship with Robson Trowbridge, I, half-Were Hedi Peacock, have had a change of heart. Ever since I shoved Trowbridge through the Gates of Merenwyn, I’ve been the leader of the pack—hard to believe, right? The thing is: I’m half-Fae. So even though my Were side is ready to heed the call of the wild, the other part of me is desperate to take flight. And much as it pains me to admit it, life without Trowbridge is really starting to were me down…
I AM WERE, HEAR ME ROAR.
To make matters worse, the wolves of Creemore want my blood—and the North American Council of Weres wants me dead. So I’m just counting the days until Trowbridge returns from the other realm… and comes to my brave rescue… and becomes my alpha mate. Wishful thinking? Of course it is. But given all the mess I’ve been through already, what’s the harm in doing a little bit of daisy-plucking? Besides, Trowbridge owes me bigtime. A girl can dream.
