{Blog Tour: Spotlight + Review + GVIEAWAY} Untethered - By Katie Hayoz

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Author: Katie Hayoz

Website

Release Date: 4/3/2013

Purchase Info: Amazon 

Sylvie isn’t comfortable in her own skin. In fact, there are times she can’t even manage to stay inside it. But if there is one thing she’s sure of, it’s her love for Kevin Phillips. She’s willing to stake everything on it –her family, her friends, and possibly her soul.
Sixteen-year-old Sylvie has been best friends with Cassie forever. But everything is turned around when the boy Sylvie’s loved since fifth grade falls for Cassie. Devastated, Sylvie intends to get Kevin by any means possible, even if it involves treachery, deceit, and the dark side of astral projection. She is positive her plans will give her what she wants, but she doesn’t count on it all spiraling out of control.
Untethered explores the intoxicating and dangerous world of jealousy and obsession when coupled with paranormal ability. Finalist in Mslexia novel competition.

 Emotionally Charged!!

Never before have I read a book that has thrown me into such an emotional roller coaster. Sylvie has major issues, and when I say major I mean projecting herself into other people's bodies.

She has the most overwhelming feeling that she doesn't belong in her own skin....and that's putting it lightly. Seeing her struggle so much is heart breaking, I feel like all she wants is to be loved. Accepted.

As they say, it's not always easy getting what you want.

The author did a phenomenal job making every emotion, character and situation in this book believe. Honestly, if someone were to ask me if I believed in astral projection I would jump up and down, reference this book, then MAKE them read it! 

Without dragging this on and on for days I will say this was probably one of my favorite reads all year! Not only was is so well written, but the fact that every scene, scenario and character was fresh, new and creative. Now go.....go buy this book, tell your friends and be prepared for a roller coaster of emotion & fantastic-ness!

5/5

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EXCERPT

Chapter Nineteen

A Memory: Stupid Girls

The summer we were ten years old, Cassie and I held our fingers over my mother’s biggest, shiniest knife and looked into each other’s eyes.

“Ready?” Cassie asked. Her eyes shone. She dragged her front teeth across the plump cushion of her bottom lip.

The knife was her idea, not mine. I would have gone with a needle.

But a few hours earlier Cassie had come over to my place with tears in her eyes, upset about her parents drinking. As usual.

There was never any violence. Never anything to get too freaked out about. But sometimes it wore her out. Like this time. This time she wilted against the back of the couch and whispered, “They barely notice I’m there.”

I laced my fingers in hers. We sat a long time, dangling our flip-flops from our toes, the too-sweet smell of honeysuckle coming in from the open windows.

Suddenly, Cassie sat up straight. Her left flip-flop dropped to the floor. “You’re my best friend, right?”

Yeah.”

“We’ve been through everything together.”

We had. From what everyone called my ‘fainting spells’, to getting our pants pulled down by the neighborhood boys, to an attempt at running away, to living through Sam’s practical jokes. And more.

“And we’ll be friends forever? We’ll always be able to count on each other, right?” Cassie spoke quickly now, her grip on my hand getting tighter.

Her intensity wasn’t exactly scaring me, but it did make me squirm just a little. “Forever.”

She narrowed her green eyes at me. “Prove it.”

So it came down to this: An extremely sharp knife and an oath to always be best friends. Which is why we were standing there, in my kitchen, my mom’s cutlery in our hands and why Cassie’s face was flushed with satisfaction and mine with fear.

“The oath,” Cassie prompted. We said it together, our two voices melding into one:

Blood Sisters, blood sisters as long as we live. Always together. We always forgive.

Best friends forever, best friends for life. As proof we share our blood with this knife.

“On the count of three,” Cassie said.

“Uhhh ... ”

“You can’t hesitate, Sylvie. If you hesitate that means you don’t take it seriously.” She fixed me a look that managed to be both demanding and pleading at the same time.

Where we gripped the handle, my palm was slick with sweat.

She started to count: “One ... two ... three ...”

Both of us slid the pad of our index fingers down the blade at the same time.

The blood came first. Bright, bright blood. And then the sharp, stinging bolt of pain. The knife dropped to the tile floor with a loud clang. Cassie sucked in a huge breath. I stared at the red dripping onto my feet and cried out.

We’d been intending to rub our blood into each other’s cut. But before we could, I felt a prickle of fear and then nothing. Nothing at all.

 Dizziness seized me as I hovered near a cobweb in the corner, watching as my mom ran into the kitchen and took control, her voice strange and surreal from where I was.

“What are you girls thinking?” she shrieked. “Do you know what kind of infections and diseases you can get from doing this kind of thing? You’re lucky you didn’t cut your fingers off!” From above I saw my body go limp, my head pitching forward and my legs buckling. 

“Oh, my Lord, Sylvie! Don’t faint!” When Mom thrust our hands under cold water, I came back to my body with a jerk. “Stay with me!” pleaded Mom as she shoved my raw and aching finger further under the rushing tap.

Mom cleaned our cuts and wrapped them in Barbie Band-Aids. It was only then that Cassie and I touched fingers. We hooked them around each other and squeezed, the pain from the fresh cut throbbing up to our elbows. But no fluids were shared, so officially we were just two kids with deep cuts. Not blood sisters.

Even so, we took that oath — Band-Aids or not we took it. “We’re blood sisters,” Cassie says even now, six years later. “No matter how mad we get, we have to forgive.” 

Or do we?

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Five ebook copies of Untethered by Katie Hayoz

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