Monday, July 22, 2013

Guest Blog & Giveaway: Gargoyle Addiction by Livia Olteano

UFI welcomes Livia Olteano Author of Gargoyle Addiction. Thanks for Joining us!!


The Piatra Gargoyles


I love gargoyles. In our world, they're these grotesque-looking stone beauties who scare off evil spirits. They show up in architecture from way back when, all over the world, Egypt, Greece, sometimes looking like lion heads or even chimeras. Architecturally speaking, they're meant to spout water collected from the roof so it wouldn't go into the masonry of a building, so they're functional art. But it's the symbolism of gargoyles that I find more interesting.
I love the La Gargouille legend, and I actually referenced it in the novel, giving Gargouille's story a bit of a personal spin. They were also used as symbol of a Church vanquishing evil, or keeping it at bay. Gargoyles are guardians that look scary because they fight scary things, I guess. I find them to be fascinating.

We've seen gargoyles as paranormal creatures, maybe being stone by day and turning into living creatures by night, when they'd do their guarding. After all, when would evil come knocking on our doors but at night, right? If you ask me, there's more potential for evil during the day, but then again I've always been a night person.

Anyway, my gargoyles, the Piatra gargoyles, aren't made of stone - at least not in a direct sense. Their characters, their personalities though, do tend to run toward the stone cold and ruthless. As descendants of dragons, gargoyles keep some of the special gifts of their ancestors and live in clans based on that inheritance. A clan, called a Haus, has its own residence, hunting grounds and leaders. There are five clans: Haus of Banix (yellow gargoyles, descendants of yellow dragons), Haus of Cerin (green gargoyles), Haus of Lagus (red gargoyles), Haus of Mera (blue gargoyles), and Haus of Varis (black gargoyles). Yellow gargoyles can move things with the power of their minds. Green gargoyles have the power to shapeshift. Red gargoyles can set things on fire with their minds. Blue gargoyles can mentally influence others, using telepathy or giving someone hallucinations. Black dragons can mirror-walk, they move over certain physical distances while taking just one step (kind of like teleporting, but only over visible distances).

They're very strong, very stubborn creatures that are used to operate not based on love, but on fear and power. They're hungry hunters, feeding on live prey. Their world, Piatra, is one of the seven Otherworlds and perhaps one of the cruelest. It's where Kann Varis comes from when he's summoned into the human world.

How do you feel about gargoyles, architectural or their symbolism?
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Livia lives in Europe where she listens to obscene amounts of music and devours every reading material in sight. When she’s not doing either of the two, she fiddles with anything remotely customizable within reach.

Find Livia and her books
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Gargoyle Addiction
Otherworld Summons #1
 Summonari don’t trust. Under their command, they summon any number of creatures from the Otherwolds—but never trust them outside of the summoning.
Gargoyles don’t love. Fierce descendants of dragons, they function on power and fear—never love.

Karla isn’t the happily-ever-after type of girl. No territory-hungry guy is going to stick flags all over her unclaimed grounds.
Kann’s world is death and betrayal. As Dar Primus of Haus Varis, he’s expected to follow tradition but he’s not your regular gargoyle. In fact, he’s anything but.

One fateful Friday night, Otherworlds collide. Stuck together in one world or another, Karla and Kann face everything from Awakenings and turbulent love to Festnavals and bloodthirsty scorned suitors.
If there’s one thing they can’t escape, it’s the addiction to each other. And they’ve got it bad.
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Week in Review: 7/14-7/20


Books Ive Bought/received

* Uninvited by Sophie Jordan- eARC- Edelweiss

* Dangerous by JAX- eARC- Netgalley

* On Midnight Wings by Adrian Phoenix- eARC- Edelweiss (It has been so long since I read the previous books I think I might be lost reading it.)

* Pile of Bones by Bailey Cunningham- Publisher

* Bound by Night by Larissa Ione- eARC- Publisher via netgalley

Books I Read

The Human by Keary Taylor
Dangerous by JAX

Reviews Posted

Damn Him to Hell by Jamie Quaid
Viral by Shaunta Grimes

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* New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Spotlight and Giveaway for The Cat's Meow by Stacey Kennedy

* Tuesday- Promo and Giveaway for Infinityglass by Myra McEntire

* Wednesday- A guest blog and giveaway for Dark Secrets by A.M. Hudson

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 * I love comments so if you see something you like (or not) please comment away and let me know.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Review: Damn Him to Hell by Jamie Quaid

Damn Him to Hell
Author:Jamie Quaid
Release Date: June 25, 2013
Publisher: Pocket Books
ISBN:  1451656378
ISBN13: 9781451656374
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Review Copy Source: Edelweiss

Justice is blind. Justine isn’t. Book two in the Saturn's Daughter series, in which Tina Clancy is gifted with the power to dispense justice...for good or evil.

Tina Clancy is adapting to her new life as one of Saturn’s Daughters while living in the toxic part of Baltimore known as The Zone, and occasionally acting as a champion of the downtrodden, the weird, the innocent...and the sometimes not-so-innocent.

Just when she finally lands a real law job, the Zone is blasted by poisonous gas and her sometimes-boyfriend starts receiving visitors from Hell. He’s none too pleased about that, or in Tina having sent his granny to Hell in his place. For that matter, neither is granny…

I was excited to jump into DAMN HIM TO HELL, I thoroughly enjoyed the world of Saturn's Daughter from the first chapter of book 1. The zone is a place like no other and the people and creatures that live there keep you guessing.  Although there is a lot going on in book 2, I unfortunately found myself board at times while reading. I don't know if it was over explaining or dragging out of events. Maybe both at points? Despite that, I enjoyed the character growth.

Tina is now a lawyer and moves forward in her career. She has a lot of trouble with figuring out her powers and if she is using it for good or evil. I enjoyed the advancement in that particular story like. Andre opens up a tad bit, NOT much I warn you. There is so much to learn about him. I kept waiting for something to happen between Tina and Andre but kept waiting... and waiting. The sexual tension was ridiculous and great at the same time.

I enjoyed BOYFRIEND FROM HELL a bit more than book 2 but it was still a nice continuation of the series. I'm invested in the characters so I will be waiting for book 3. 

I gave it 3/5 stars

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Review: Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes

Viral Nation
Release Date: July 2, 2013
Publisher: Berkley Trade
ISBN:   0425265137
ISBN13: 9780425265130
Genre: Dystopian
Review Copy Source: Publisher

After a virus claimed nearly the entire global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed.

Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover’s refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future.

When one of Clover’s missions reveals that West’s life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West’s fate, they’ll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company’s rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined… and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever.

You find out quickly that our main character is autistic. She is high functioning, but some of her behavior and actions mimic her disorder. She is pretty brilliant and gets into the Academy but her service dog is not allowed to come with her and as soon as they find out she has autism they send her on to the company to become a Time Mariner.  They are really sneaky about why she is there and then weird things start happening to her while she is in the future. 

I had no issue with keeping up with the story. There is time travel but it is not confusing in any way and there is not a ton of it. I enjoyed the authors voice. She is a great storyteller. Clover is pretty interesting. She has a great personality and being autistic did not pull her down. If you want there to be romance, sorry you wont get it. There is a bit of chemistry between Clover and Jude but no romance really. I loved the relationship between Clover and her brother West. It was nice watching them together. I was surprised by their father but I guess situations in VIRAL NATION led him to his decisions. I was a tad disappointed at a death towards the end. I hate that the one person that has answers is gone before he can give them and just don't know how the 'team' will figure things out. I guess we shall see.

Unique characters, a believable and interesting world at a nice pace just about sums up why I will be picking up book two when it comes out. Any fan of dystopian should enjoy VIRAL NATION.

I gave it 4/5 stars

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Guest Blog & Giveaway: Dark Secrets by A.M. Hudson

UFI welcomes A.M. Hudson Author of Dark Secrets. Thanks for Joining us!!

Hello, everyone. Thanks for having me here. I’m A.M. Hudson, author of the international bestseller, Dark Secrets—a romantic vampire mystery, with a few dark twists that leave both an uneasy and an overwhelmingly-mushy feeling in your gut.

With its ever-growing success, I often get asked very random questions about the series and its inception. So, I thought I’d share a few fun facts with you all today. 

·       The series began in 2007 as a novel based in the 1800s, with a promiscuous young lad named David, who becomes a vampire while voyaging the seas in the Queen’s Navy

·       I had a hard time coming up with a surname for David. I was driving to school one day, wondering what Ara’s knight in shining armour’s surname should be, when the name ‘Knight’ hit me. It made perfect sense.

·       In an old version of Dark Secrets, Ara’s father dies and she is left with her evil stepmother, Vicki, who kicks her out of home, straight into the arms of a passing renegade/vampire. 

·       There were at least seven versions of stories with Ara, Jason and David in them before I settled on this version. This is the first version that has Mike.
·       Dark Secrets was originally titled Blood Knight, but was changed before publish, as the word ‘blood’ had been used so often in vampire literature that it was cliché.

·       Book 1 & 2 were originally one book, then split into two because publishers didn’t want books that long, then combined again because I realised it didn’t really matter what publishers thought. 

·       To write the books, I would often listen to music and take the story in the direction the music flowed; if it was sad, bad things happened. If the music sounded like a battle song, Ara and David would end up in a fight. This method is how the butterfly kissing scene, the first argument on the football field, and many other scenes came to fruition. I quite often have no idea where the story will go until it gets there.

·       The covers were all designed by me

·       The dedication in the first book is to my husband, Mike, who is nothing like Mike in the books, but who is, in fact, responsible for many of David’s romantic lines. Yes, they were things my husband actually said. So, anyone who thinks guys don’t really talk like just haven’t met an Aussie SNAG (sensitive new-age guy). I would pause in the middle of his love confessions to grab a pen and write them down. He’s become accustomed to my little trips to a notepad. 

·       The love scene in Mark of Betrayal (you all know which one I'm talking about) made me late to drop my kids at school one day, because I woke suddenly with the whole thing playing out in my head, completely changing what it was originally meant to be, yet making it ten times better. I went into school that morning giggling to myself, my cheeks a little flushed. 

·       The title ‘Dark Secrets’ was coined after hours’ of thought. I chose words that would draw me in if I were searching for a book, and since I love all things dark and secretive, Dark Secrets was perfect.

·       I still giggle when I think of that love scene in book 4

·       When writing the first draft of Dark Secrets, the vampire was Mike and the human BFF was David, but I kept writing ‘Mike’ in David scenes and ‘David’ in Mike scenes. I did this so often that I finally decided Mike and David obviously wanted to choose their own role in the story, and went with the flow. Now, I couldn't imagine it being the other way around. 

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I hope you all enjoyed Dark Secrets Fun Facts, and I look forward to seeing you on the next tour stop.
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A.M. Hudson loves her life in Australia and, despite wishing it would snow at Christmas, couldn't imagine living anywhere else in the world.

She fell in love with her husband at just sixteen, and since then, has added three boys to the mix.

 A. M. prides herself on writing the shocking, the depthy and the highly-emotional subjects other writers steer away from. She addresses the uncomfortable with conviction and enjoys taking stories down dark paths.

 Some of her heroes are Stephen King, Walt Disney, Hamish and Andy, Muse and 30 Seconds to Mars, and with influences like these, one can only imagine what stories will unfold.

 When she's not writing, A. M. reads books, watches movies and chats with fans on facebook. 

Find A.M. and her books
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Dark Secrets
 Get it free at Amazon    and  Smashwords


Since their release in 2011, Books 1 & 2 from the Dark Secrets series have come together, presented as one great book for one low price.

How can you be attracted to a guy who just said he wants to kill you?

Ara-Rose asks herself the same question. She’s been torn away from her old life, thrown into a new one in a new country, and in the midst of death, heartache and depression, she finds herself in love with a vampire—one who kills people with his teeth!

But the vampire is forbidden to fall for this human, and at the point Ara-Rose decides she can’t live without him, he pulls away and leaves her falling back to the darkness he woke her from. She will be caught up in a century-old feud among brothers, and the fight for love becomes a fight for her life.

The only question now is whether her beloved vampire will find her in time, or leave her to face a destiny he triggered with their first kiss.

 
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Promo & Giveaway: Infinityglass by Myra McEntire

Infinityglass 
Hourglass #3
Aug 6, 2013

The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.

The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -­have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time trav­elers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.

With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.

But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn't an object. It's a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?

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 Myra McEntire has had her nose in a book since she could hold one.  She was once caught reading in the shower (true story) and only stopped when her father disconnected the hot water heater.  She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two boys.




Find Myra and her books
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US only
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New Releases: 7/14-7/20

 
Tue July 16

Mist (Mist, #1) by Susan Krinard
Replica (Replica, #1) by Jenna Black
 
Happy Reading!!