Interview & Giveaway - April Fifer & Danielle Hylton-Outland

Who: April Fifer & Danielle Hylton-Outland

Danielle Hylton-Outland was raised in Virginia. She grew up having a huge appetite for daydreaming; always wanting to live in the spectacular worlds she created in her mind. She now lives with her husband and dog where she is pursuing a degree in literature. Danielle is a strong animal activist. She is currently co-writing the second book in the Flesh Series, "Flesh and Flames".

April Fifer grew up in a small town in Virginia, where it was common practice believing that dreams could only be found in stories. At the age of seven she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She was told that she would struggle through life and would never pick up a book to read for pleasure. Although school was hard, she was able to find her way with the help of two teachers who taught her self-discovery. Ignoring what she was taught growing up, she turned it around and found that your dreams could become stories.

  

What: Flesh & Feathers

Azaleigh's life is simple until, by chance, she meets Kale.  Charming and handsome Az is immediately drawn to him. But long kept secrets lurk in the hearts of those Az holds most dear, and dangerous plans are unfolding around her.  As her life begins to crumble and Kale disappears, Gage, charismatic and striking, arrives, providing a calm port in an increasingly violent storm.  But with every narrow escape from a far from human bounty hunter after her life, Az begins to unravel a secret with the power to change her forever.  In an increasingly hostile world of Angel and Fallen, Azaleigh must navigate her own path, chose her own side, and ultimately protect her heart.  Faced with two gorgeous men, an enemy she doesn’t know, and a future she cannot understand, Az must make the choice: the man she loves, or the man she cannot live without.

     

  How long have the 2 of you been writing partners?

 We have been working together for about two years now. A lot of that has been us working on Flesh and Feathers. But we have worked on other projects as well. Flesh and Feathers was our first baby, and we had to figure out a system to work together. Now our writing has tripled in speed because we know exactly what to expect from each other.

  
       Where did the idea for Flesh & Feathers come from?

    It started because one of us read a book and was not at all happy with the ending. So we decided to make of our own ending. We came up with the idea of a girl falling in love with an angel. But that wasn’t good enough. We wanted drama, secrets, and lots of action. The plot evolved into something neither one of us saw coming. And as we’ve been writing the sequel, Flesh and Flames, the plot continues to thicken. We are loving it!!!

       Who do you see playing Kale & Gage on the big screen?

      This is sooooo easy! Danielle picked Robert Pattinson for Kale, and April picked Eric Dane for Gage! For Azaleigh, we both see Rosamund Pike.

    Is this a stand-alone  novel or the first of many?

           First of many! Flesh and Feathers is the first of The Flesh Series. The second book in the series is Flesh and Flames. We have also thrown around the plot for book three, which we are calling Flesh and Folly. There are other projects we have worked on as well. We just completed a short erotica called Love, Lies and a Bloke and are now working on a paranormal romance called The Witch and The Werewolf.

Quickies:

Pancakes or Waffles?

April: Pancakes – extra syrup.

Danielle: Pancakes – with whipped cream please.

Chocolate or fruity?

April: Chocolate

Danielle: Chocolate – are you kidding.

Favorite Animal

April: Horse – they are so beautiful.

Danielle: All of them – Do I have to choose? I’m an animal lover… actually let’s go with a teacup pig.

1^st song on your playlist right now?

April: Anna by Stone Sour

Danielle: Closer by Nine-Inch  Nails

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GIVEAWAY:

April & Danielle have graciously donated a $10 Amazon GC

Just give the Copter all your info!

Good Luck!

Review: Forgiven (The Demon Trappers Series Book #3) - By Jana Oliver

Author: Jana Oliver

Website

Release Date: 3/27/2012

Purchase Info: Amazon, B & N, Book Depo

The days are growing darker for 17-year-old demon trapper Riley Blackthorne. With her father’s reanimated body back safely, Beck barely speaking to her because of a certain hunky Fallen angel, and a freshly-made deal with Lucifer, she has enough on her hands to last a normal teenage lifetime. Though she bargained with Heaven to save his life, her ex-boyfriend Simon has told the Vatican’s Demon Hunters that she’s working with Hell. So now she’s in hiding, at the top of everyone’s most-wanted list.

But it’s becoming clear that this is bigger than Riley, and rapidly getting out of control: something sinister is happening in Atlanta… or someone. The demons are working together for the first time ever and refusing to die, putting civilians in harm’s way. Riley thinks she might know who’s behind it all, but who’s going to believe her? Caught between her bargain with Heaven and her promise to Lucifer, Riley fears the final war is coming – and it may be closer than anyone thinks…

First Thought: Gut Wrenching!!

*SPOILER ALERT if you have NOT read Book #1 or #2*

Holy Demons!! (no pun intended) Never in my wildest dream would I have imagined that Jana would out do book #2 to this extreme! 

Picking up right where Soul Thief left off, Riley’s world is completely upside down. Finding her father, knowing who raised him, and realizing why it was all done sends Riley into shock. Not only has she been betrayed by someone who she thought she could trust forever, she’s worried that the Hunters from the Vatican will find her any minute and basically burn her at the stake. So now keeping her father’s body safe is top priority. But not everyone shares this idea. Enter that creeper Lord Ozy-What’s-His-Face…..yeah that necromancer who thinks he could raise Jesus….he’s out for one thing and one thing only, Paul Blackthrone. But Riley’s determined to let father go on HER terms, NOT the other way around.

During Forgiven I LOVED how Riley was able to come into her own and handle things the way she wanted to instead of listening to those around her. (i.e. Beck) You can see a change in her, how she’s had to grow up fast and has turned into not only a kick ass heroine, but a strong woman. With the high amount of emotions that are running through this whole book, I found myself crying and wanting to throw the book at the wall all in the same breath.  I guess that’s just the effect that Beck has on me, LOL.

There’s a time when you’re reading a book & you get to that point where you start thinking, ’this book is seriously wicked’, well that’s how this book was from page one. I can’t praise this book, and series, enough for you all to understand how truly amazing it is. This world & these characters were able to launch me from my small town in California, into a run down, demon infested, Atlanta of the future. I just melted into Riley’s world and never wanted to leave.  Jana’s gift of writing is absolutely superb and mind blowing. (if only she wrote faster…kidding) Though I am EXTREMELY excited about Foretold, the 4^th book in the Demon Trappers Series, yet I’m sitting on the verge of sadness simply because it means that this incredible series is slowly reaching it's end. But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Pick this book up, A.S.A.FREAKIN.P, you will NOT regret it!

5/5

Paperback Release & Giveaway: The Taker - By Alma Katsu

Finally The Taker is coming out in a Trade Paperback, and may I say this cover is STUNNING!
I can't wait to see how pretty it is in person :)



To celebrate The Taker's paperback release Alma has very generously put together an amazing Fan Pack for me to giveaway!

There are some seriously AWESOME goodies in this bad boy!!

Wine Label

Bookmarks

Bookplate

Post-Its

Pens

AND

1 Paperback Copy of The Taker

Cover Whore {3,294,001}

Well peeps, here's my periodic MEME, Cover Whore! 


Here's what I've been drooling over lately!!

Natural - By Cynthia Cene

I may be a tad partial to this one, but I am IN love with it!

 Gunmetal Magic - By Ilona Andrews

SQUEEEEE! I am so excited for this book it's not even funny, but I really am drooling over this cover!

Foretold - By Jana Oliver

Right now I'm reading Forgiven & LOVING-IT!! Her covers just keep getting better & BETTER!

Velveteen - By Daniel Marks

O-M-G.....seriously this cover is amazingly swoon worthy!

Forth Grave Beneath My Feet - By Darynda Jones

Personally, I think all of Darynda's covers are absolutely brilliant! But there's just something about this having some lime green in it that GRABS me!

Once Burned - By Jeaniene Frost

One word........YUM

Review: Asylum - By K.A. Tucker

Author: K.A. Tucker

Website

Release Date: 12/12/2011

Purchase Info: Amazon, B&N

Tucked away in Sofie's wintery asylum with no hope of release for years, Evangeline must come to terms with her situation: the curse still plagues her, she's now hunted by a two thousand-year-old vampire, and the guy she's in love with tried to kill her.

Plus, she's locked up with a cranky Max and the Forero kids—two people everyone seems to prefer dead over alive. Things aren't looking good.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Sofie struggles to keep forty trapped and bloodthirsty Ratheus vampires at bay and a desperate Viggo from killing Evangeline's friends, all while hints stir outside the walls of the NYC vampire asylum of a war brewing between the Sentinel and the witches.

First Thought: I still want to punch Viggo in the damn face!

After finishing Anathema I, every so patiently, hounded K.A. until I knew when Asylum would be out! There was just something about Anathema that grabbed a hold of me and didn't let go until the end. It was such a breath of fresh air when it came to vampires & I've never seen someone mesh current day with dystopia quiet the way she did.

After the mind-blowing ending in Anathema I was expecting HUGE things in Asylum....and boy was I NOT disappointed! Coming back to Viggo & Morts house, which is now infested with blood thirsty vampires, you are getting everything from Sofie's POV. She's struggling to keep Evangeline's location secret, while making sure that Caden & his friends stay off of Viggo's radar. With bombs, mutants and a the "Race of Death", Sofie finds the struggle to keep things balanced harder than she expected. But she finds a friend somewhere completely out of the blue, and it's kind of nice to actually she her find one for once.

Meanwhile, back in the middle of feckin' no where, Evangeline is trying to avoid going stir crazy with he lovely cabin companions......even though Caden isn't with Evangeline you know that he is influencing her every move.
So in this cabin from hell, you have so many different personalities it's amazing that they last as long as they do before.....OH can't tell ya, but damn it's a GREAT surprise!

Needless to say this book was UH-MAZE-ING! It had me going up and then down. My emotional radar was all over the feckin' place, you'd think I was pregnant with how back and forth my emotions went! K.A. took it places I never saw coming, her ability to create such diverse characters floors me. The only thing that I could have asked for was book #3!
So now the wait begins......



5/5

Un-Stuff My Bookshelf

I'm UN-STUFFING my shelves!!

Not like this....

More like this......

It's SUPER simply, just leave the Rafflecopter your info!

(FYI all winners will receive at least 10 bookmarks w/ their winnings)

Launch Into The Galaxy: Cover Reveal & Giveaway w/ Heather Hildenbrand

This week marks the re-launch of Heather Hildenbrand’s YA fantasy, Across The Galaxy.

Here’s what Heather says about it:

For me, January marked one year as a published author and to mark that, I wanted to do something special to celebrate how far I’ve come in such a short amount of time. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to show some love to the title that got me here in the first place. Across The Galaxy was my first book and as a result, was also my guinea pig in a lot of ways. Through publishing it, I learned so much and met so many awesome bloggers and readers that I am so grateful for that story and for where it took me. For everything it’s given me, I want to give something back to it. (Yes, I realize I’m referring to my book as if it were a real person. Don’t you do that with the characters inside it? Yeah, I’m not the only crazy here.)

So, I found one of the best cover artists EVER and together we came up with a brand new cover that will basically rock your socks. Not sure? Take a minute. Go stare at the new cover and then come back and finish reading. I’ll wait. It’s worth it. 

… Now, with a change this big, we aren’t stopping with just a cover reveal. That’s just not enough. So, we’re also doing an e-book giveaway here and another e-book giveaway on every site participating in the “LAUNCH INTO THE GALAXY” Hop this week so be sure to stop everywhere. In addition to THAT, I am also running a giveaway on my publisher’s site at www. Accendopress.com and another one on my personal site at www.heatherhildenbrand.blogspot.com that will include a signed paperback and a very sleek and sexy, leather Kindle cover. Be sure to check that out! And be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think of the new cover!