Taking it One Book at a Time

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

{Blog Tour: Review + Playlist + Dream Cast + GIVEAWAY} Smoke and Key - By Kelsey Sutton

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Smoke and Key - By Kelsey Sutton
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: April 2nd 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Mystery, Historical, Fiction, Paranormal, Magic, Horror

A sound awakens her. There's darkness all around. And then she's falling...

She has no idea who or where she is. Or why she's dead. The only clue to her identity hangs around her neck: a single rusted key. This is how she and the others receive their names—from whatever belongings they had when they fell out of their graves. Under is a place of dirt and secrets, and Key is determined to discover the truth of her past in order to escape it.

She needs help, but who can she trust? Ribbon seems content in Under, uninterested in finding answers. Doll’s silence hints at deep sorrow, which could be why she doesn't utter a word. There's Smoke, the boy with a fierceness that rivals even the living. And Journal, who stays apart from everyone else. Key's instincts tell her there is something remarkable about each of them, even if she can't remember why.

Then the murders start; bodies that are burnt to a crisp. After being burned, the dead stay dead. Key is running out of time to discover who she was—and what secret someone is willing to kill to keep hidden—before she becomes the next victim…

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Review

Everything.....

This book is everything....

When you fall into Under you don't know where you are, who you are, and are simply given a name based on what you bring with you. A ribbon, doll, or a Key...

Too many questions, that is a constant for Key, she wants answers to her questions, but she can never seem to remember completely. She can always feel that she is getting close, but it's almost as if something is pushing her away from it. The reason for this ties itself so well into the end of the novel it'll have you like....

Throughout the entire book I appreciated the journey that Key went on, there were a couple of times I wanted more, but then it was like the author heard me and suddenly that growth, or plot twist was there like, BAM! The author did an amazing job of finding the find line between morbid and the after, which is extremely hard to do. Death is already emotional, but giving those who are in this state of limbo purpose, emotion and a reason to "live", was such a breath of fresh air.

As this novel came to an end, I totally thought (and hoped) there would be an entire series centered around these characters, sadly it is a stand along...for now...

Though I don't want to give too much away, because I feel as though spoilers could happen with every page, I will say that there are a million plus reasons to pick this novel up and here are a few; Journal, Smoke, Ribbon, Key...

4/5

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Playlist

Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven

Can't Help Falling in Love (Elvis) - Piano Guys

End of Me - Apocalyptica ft. Gavin Rosdale

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Within You - David Bowie

I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

Human - Christina Perri

A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

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Dream Cast

Key

Smoke

Ribbon

Journal

(yes, Clint Eastwood, he just FITS)

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About the Author

Kelsey Sutton is a young adult and middle grade author. She lives in Minnesota, where she received a dual bachelor's degree in English and Creative Writing from Bemidji State University. She will soon have a master's degree from Hamline University. Her work has received an Independent Publisher Book Award, an IndieFab Award, and was selected as a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013. When not writing, Kelsey can be found watching too much Netflix, ordering a mocha at the nearest coffee shop, napping with her rescue dogs, or browsing a bookstore.

You can visit her online at www.kelseysuttonbooks.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

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Tour Schedule

April 10th

The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post

April 11th

TheSecret Reader - Review + Favourite Quotes

Moonlight Rendezvous - Review + Favourite Quotes

Some Books & Ramblings - Review

April 12th

Feed Your Fiction Addiction - Review

The Clever Reader - Promotional Post

April 13th

Confessions of a YA Reader - Review

A Dream Within A Dream - Review

The Reading Corner for All - Review + Favourite Quotes

April 14th

The YA Obsessed - Review

Bookwyrming Thoughts - Review

Absolute Bookishness - Review

April 15th

Book Rambler Blog - Review + Favourite Quotes

Young Adult Media Consumer - Review

Mahkjchi's Not-so-secret Books - Review + Favourite Quotes

April 16th

Taking It One Book at a Time - Review + Playlist + Dream Cast

Reads Like Supernovae - Review + Favourite Quotes

Book Swoon - Review

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Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, April 15, 2019

{Cover Reveal + Giveaway} Cold Falling White - By Gabrielle Prednergast

Today Gabrielle Prendergast and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover for COLD FALLING WHITE, the sequel to her Sci-Fi Book ZERO REPEAT FOREVER which releases November 19, 2019! Check out the awesome cover and enter the giveaway!

On to the reveal!

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About The Book

COLD FALLING WHITE - G.S. Prendergast

(The Nahx Invasions #2)

Release Date: 11/19/19

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

The 5th Wave meets Beauty and the Beast in this fast-paced and heart-stopping follow-up to Zero Repeat Forever, which VOYA called “an edge-of-your-seat page-turner.”

Xander Liu survived the end of the world—just barely. For more than a year he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless alien invaders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many of his friends. When the murder of his friend Raven leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territory and relative safety.

But safety amongst the humans is not what it seems. Nothing is anymore.

Raven remembers dying in the arms of August. She remembers the pain, and the way he cried as she faded away. But months later when she wakes up on a wide expanse of snowy sand dunes, shackled to a boy she thought was dead too, she has a lot of questions. What has happened to her and the other reanimated humans gathered on the dunes? What is the meaning of the Nahx ships that hover ominously above them? And most pressing of all, where is August, who promised to keep her safe?

In the shadow of an unforgiving Canadian winter, Xander and Raven find themselves on opposite sides of an alien war neither of them signed up for. Left with little choice about their roles in the great battle that now seems inevitable, they search for answers and allies, all while feeling inexorably drawn back the place it seems their respective fates were determined, and to the one who determined them: August.

Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

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ZERO REPEAT FOREVER - By G.S. Prendergast

(The Nahx Invasions #2)

Release Date: 8/29/17

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The 5th Wave meets Beauty and the Beast in this fast-paced and heart-stopping novel about an invasion of murderous creatures and one girl fighting for her life at the end of the world.

He has no voice, or name, only a rank, Eighth. He doesn’t know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind.

Dart the humans. Leave them where they fall.

His job is to protect his Offside. Let her do the shooting.

Until a human kills her…

Sixteen year-old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade, annihilating entire cities, taking control of the Earth. Isolated in the wilderness, Raven and her friends have only a fragment of instruction from the human resistance.

Shelter in place.

Which seems like good advice at first. Stay put. Await rescue. Raven doesn’t like feeling helpless but what choice does she have?

Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend.

Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear. But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other…

Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

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ZERO REPEAT FOREVER Book Trailer

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About Gabrielle

Gabrielle is a writer, teacher and designer living in Vancouver, Canada. You can read about her books here. She is represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

In 2014 she was the Writer in Residence at Vancouver Public Library. In 2015 she was nominated for the BC Book Prizes and chosen to tour the province to promote BC Books. In 2017 Gabrielle took part in the TD Canada Children’s Book Week Tour. She has also been nominated for the White Pine Awardand the CLA Award.

Gabrielle won the Westchester Award for Audacious. Audacious was included in CBC’s list of 100 YA Books That Make You Proud to be Canadian. A poem from Capricious was chosen for the 2014 Poetry in Transit Program. Pandas on the East Side was chosen as an Ontario Library Association Best Bet for Junior Fiction in 2016. It was also nominated/shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Award, The Red Cedar Award, the Diamond Willow Award and the Myrca Award.

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Giveaway

1 winner will receive a signed Zero Repeat Forever hardcover, USA and Canada Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, April 12, 2019

{Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway} The Wings of War Series (Embers) - By Karen Ann Hopkins

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EMBERS - By Karen Ann Hopkins

(The Wings of War #1)

Release Date: March 15, 2015

Genre: YA, Paranormal

There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them.

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels.

While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it's cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that's been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is the first novel in the dark and gritty YA paranormal romance series, The Wings of War.

Goodreads, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Audible, B&N, TBD

READ FOR FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!

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Review

There are angels.....everywhere...but not all of them are good.

Thank god the I had the other books in hand when I finished Ember, because I don't know how anyone can finish book one and not immediately dive into book 2, 3 & 4!

Seriously, there are so many things that I love about Ember. Dealing with the death of her parents, the stare and questions as to why she was still alive, the weight, burden and guilt she carries are so raw in her that I wanted to just give her a hug and let her know if was all right, but there I knew she needed to continue her journey. As her story unfolds it's great to see her move, grow and accept, because at first I thought the storyline was moving a little too fast for me, but it evened out and turned into something phenomenal!

Without giving too much away, there are a couple a plot twists that were great surprises, but there was one side plot that I honest wished didn't happen, and am hoping will redeem itself in the future. Now as I dive into the next books in this amazing series just know that if you're walking in the woods and see a LARGE fence that goes on for miles....you never know what might be behind it!

5/5

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About the Author

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Karen’s main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah. Their story continues in Belonging, where their families and cultures threaten to tear them apart, and with Forever and Deception, where we find out once and for all if love is enough for them.

Lamb to the Slaughter, the first book in Serenity’s Plain Secrets, is Karen’s newest Amish endeavor, opening up the darker, grittier and more secretive lives of Amish society. It’s a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest. Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the rural town of Blood Rock, and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate. At first glance, the case seems obvious. The poor girl was probably accidently shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community, and even the girl’s parents, react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious. As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting. Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman. He left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up. Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

Karen’s YA paranormal/urban fantasy series, the Wings of War, is an epic story about Ember, whose normal life ends abruptly when her parents are killed and she discovers she’s a descendent of angels. Still coping with her strange powers, Ember finds herself — and her heart — in the middle of a centuries-old war in this “compulsively readable” novel (Kirkus Reviews).

Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse at the age of eleven. The feisty horse’s name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen’s steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her bestselling Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, the Wings of War. Karen is also excited to announce there will be more books in the Temptation series.

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Tour Schedule

Week One:

4/1/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt

4/2/2019- Introvert Booklover- Excerpt

4/3/2019- Lisa Loves Literature- Spotlight

4/4/2019- BookHounds- Interview

4/5/2019- Lone Tree Reviews- Excerpt

Week Two:

4/8/2019- Novel Novice- Excerpt

4/9/2019- Books Coffee and Repeat- Guest Post

4/10/2019- Reese's Reviews- Review

4/11/2019- Savings in Seconds- Review

4/12/2019- Taking It One Book at a time- Review

Week Three:

4/15/2019- Bookroom Reviews- Guest Post

4/16/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

4/17/2019- Viviana MacKade- Excerpt

4/18/2019- Kelly P's Blog- Excerpt

4/19/2019- Tyto Forest- Excerpt

Week Four:

4/22/2019- 4covert2overt ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼- Excerpt

4/23/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

4/24/2019- D. Books and Reviews- Review

4/25/2019- Treestand Book Reviews- Review

4/26/2019- Novel Nerd Faction- Review

Week Five:

4/29/2019- 100 Pages A Day- Review

4/30/2019- Lady Amber's Reviews- Review

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Giveaway

1 winner will receive one set of signed print copies of the entire 4 book series, open to US, Canada, Australia and Great Britain.

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