New Releases: 2/19-2/25

Tues Feb 21

A Beautiful Evil (Gods & Monsters, #2) by Kelly Keaton

A Perfect Blood (The Hollows, #10) by Kim Harrison

Faery Tales & Nightmares by Melissa Marr

Fever (The Chemical Garden, #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Forever Claimed by Rachel Lee

Raven Calls (Walker Papers #7) by C.E. Murphy

Shadows (Lux, #0.5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Tempted by Blood (Sweetblood, #3)by Laurie London

Happy Reading!!!

Promotional Post & Giveaway: Fated Benedict Jacka

**Available February 28, 2012**

Fated
Author: Benedict Jacka
Release Date: February 28, 2012
Publisher: Ace
Alex Verus Book #1
ISBN:   1937007294
ISBN13: 9781937007294
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future--allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success.

But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful. And thanks to his abilities, Alex can predict that by taking the job, his odds of survival are about to go from slim to none...

Helpful Links:

Author website

Cover Reveal & Excerpt: Inbetween by Tara Fuller

**Available August 7, 2012**

Inbetween
Author: Tara Fuller
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Kissed by Death Book #1
ISBN:  1620610833
ISBN13: 9781620610831
Genre: Young Adult

Since the car crash that took her father’s life three years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky—and unending—lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.

It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn't let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left…his soul.

 Paperback Available for Pre-Order from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Inbetween-Tara-Fuller/dp/1620610833/ref=lh_ni_t

Add to your Goodreads TBR:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13055677-inbetween

Special reveal treat. Here is a chapter 1 excerpt.

Chapter 1

Finn

Sometimes Emma made me feel so alive, I almost forgot I was dead.
   
   Almost. 

      I sank down onto the side of her bed, amazed by the blazing wildfire that swept through me whenever Emma was near enough to touch. I took a deep, unneeded breath, and settled down on my side next to her. The mattress didn't sink. The springs didn't groan with the weight of an extra body. The distance between us was an impossible void. Inches that might as well have been miles. Miles that left me wanting in so many ways that I ached.

      Even the sun couldn't resist her. Its glowing rays caressed her skin, and stained her hair the satiny color of summer wheat. Before I knew what was happening, my hand followed their lead. Cells ignited. My skin burned, screaming with the agonizing need to touch-- 

      “What do you think you're doing?” 

      I jerked my hand away just as Easton melted up from the polished hardwood floor beneath the window. Like an oil slick coming to life, he unfolded his long, shadowy legs until he was just an ink blot against the square of tangerine sunrise behind him. His violet eyes pinned me like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 

      Which, I kind of was.

      “Nothing,” I lied.

      “Yeah, looked like nothing.” He strolled across the room accompanied by a wave of sulfur and smoke, the black serpent tattoo on his neck glinting. “What were you planning to do, recite her poem? I swear to God, if you were still alive I'd confiscate your man card.” 

      I ignored the barb and scrunched up my nose. “Jesus, Easton. Don't they have a shower somewhere between here and the afterlife?” 

      “Screw you. You didn't just have to tow somebody's grandpa to Hell.” He brushed something chalky and grey off of his cloak and a shudder worked its way down my spine. God only knows who or what it belonged to. “Besides I wasn't the one about to feel up a sleeping human.” 

      “I wasn't--”

      “Save it.” He waved his hand. “We have work to do. I don't have time for your useless obsession with the human today.”

        “Will you please stop calling her that?”

      “What?” Easton glanced up from Emma's vanity, where he'd been inspecting the various lotions and bottles like he was on some alien planet. Then again, Easton had been dead for something like four hundred years, so all of her stuff probably was sort of alien to him.

      “The human. You make me sound like a freak. It's not like we're a different species for God's sake. We were humans, too, or don't you remember that far back?”

      “Were. Past tense.” 

      We could have gone back and forth like that for hours, but the call came. It always did. It started in my bones--a cold so cutting that it sliced through me like a machete. When I looked up, Easton's jaw was clenched, his muscles taut and ready. He slowly closed his hand around the handle of his scythe that burned black and softly smoked at his side. I flexed my fingers as the icy ribbons of death worked their way through each one of my limbs.

      “Can you take this one for me?” I asked. “You're already going to be there, and I just got back--”

      “No,” Easton said. “Hell no. I have my own job to do. I can't keep covering for your sorry ass. Besides, you're already on thin ice with Balthazar. Don't push your luck, Finn. Just keep your nose down, collect your souls, and thank the Almighty that you don't have my job. Now let's go.”

      “Yeah, but…” My eyes returned to Emma. Sleeping. Perfect. Safe.

      “For the love of God. She'll be fine, you pansy.” Easton clamped a hand over my shoulder and dragged me from the bed.

      “How do you know?”

      He shrugged. “I don't.”

       With that he vanished, consumed in a flash by the keening wails of the damned. The screams beckoned. Clawed at me from the inside out. 

      Rule one as a seeker: Death doesn't wait for anyone. 

      And it sure as hell wasn't waiting for me now.

Week in Review 2/12-2/18

Books Ive Bought/received

* Illicit Magic-Ebook- Bewitching Book Tours

* Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep- eARC- Author

* Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire- Publisher

* Eventide by Elle Jasper- Publisher

* White Witch by Trish Milburn- eARC- Netgalley



Books I read

Hunting Grounds by Patricia Briggs
Fair Games by Patricia Briggs
Black Howl by Christina Henry
Fated by Benedict Jacka
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

Reviews posted


Partials by Dan Wells
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Initiation by Imogen Rose

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


* Katie Reus was here on Thursday with a guest post in promotion of her newest release Alpha Instinct.



* UFI participated in a cover reveal for  Finn Finnegan by Darby Karchut from Spencer Hill Press that is set to be released in March of 2013.


* Friday Denise Grover Swank was here. There is a character interview with one of the characters from her newest release titled Here.

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*If you see something on my books Ive read list that you are dying to know about let me know I'm back logged on reviews and can move it up on the list if I know people are wanting one.

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

Winner: Alpha Instinct by Katie Reus

Thank you to everyone who entered!!

Prize: 2 paperback copies of Alpha Instinct

The Winner chosen by Rafflecopter is.....

Review: Initiation by Imogen Rose

Initiation
Author: Imogen Rose
Release Date: December 24, 2011
Publisher: Self Published
Bonfire Academy Book #1
ISBN:   0982800258
ISBN13: 9780982800256
Genre: Young Adult
Review Copy Source: Bewitching Book Tours

Welcome to Bonfire Academy. Set in the foothills of the alpine mountains in St.Moritz, this exclusive private school caters to a special kind of student. Enter at your own risk... but if you are human, you may not want to enter at all. 

 


I was pleasantly surprised with INITIATION. The Cover art is kinda Bleh and the blurb was interesting but not "mind blowing I have to read now" worthy. Even after reading the book I didn't fully picture Cordelia really looking like that. I guess this series and book is a prequel to another series that Imogen Rose has made. If you are worried about being lost while reading, don't be. I didn't know about the other series and wasn't lost with characters at all.

Cordelia wasn't especially excited to find out that she would be mentoring someone when she settled back into school. She was looking forward to playing lots of Tennis and hanging with her boyfriend Quinn.

Cordelia and Faustine connected right away and even though the schools number one rule is Don't trust anyone they still ended up being pretty close. I really enjoyed the action, it seemed that Cordelia was constantly on the move and was constantly fending off dire situations. The mystery left you stumped and the ending started a new mystery that got me wanting to read book 2. I liked the characters. Cordelia was fun and it was interesting learning about her abilities and what she thought of them. Jagger was mysterious and likable. I was rooting for him for Cordelia from the begging. Quinn was easy to like and I could see why Cordelia was with him but I still like her better with Jagger. There were something that left me kinda feeling like I was lost at the end. So did she end up with her boyfriend Quinn, Jagger or both? Did the boyfriend ever find out about her and Jagger being "connected"? These are things a girl needs to know!!

INITIATION definitely left me interested in finding out what happens next. I will be reading book 2 of the series when it comes out and also go and read the other series this is connected with so I can see some of the characters in the future.

I gave it 3.5/5

Interview: Denise Grover Swank

UFI welcomes Denise Grover Swank Author of Here. Thanks for Joining us!!

Character Interview: Evan

If someone asked your best friend "Who is Evan?" what would they say?

Reece would probably smart off about how privileged I am because of my father and how I could get away with anything yet refuse to take advantage of my situation. But then he’d get serious and say that I’m one of the smartest people knows and that my world revolves around my love for a girl.

What is your favorite part of school?

Science, particularly physics. I take after my father, a world renowned scientist.

What are you true feelings about Julia?

I love her with every part of my being. Without her, my life is pointless.

Why should Julia trust you?

I understand why she has trouble trusting me. But she has to understand that I love her more than I love myself. I would do anything to protect her.

Where do you live?

I live in Springfield, Missouri. But things aren’t always the way they appear.

Is there anything else you can tell us about yourself to help us know you a little better?

I’m not that complicated. I know my place in the world and I know what belongs in it. Loving someone means being willing to risk everything to have a chance with them. The world is made up of tiny, miniscule atoms that combine to make something bigger. Something that couldn’t exist unless they were bound together by some invisible force. Life is a lot like physics when you think about it. When two people are bound by love, nothing can keep them apart.

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Denise is a single mom who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri raising five of her six kids. (The oldest has gone off to live on his own.) She loves to embarrass her children whether it be spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen or making her teens’ friends think she’s funny/cool. *gasp* (Even if its in her own mind.) On rare occasions, she is known to post stories about her crazy life on her family blog There’s Always Room for One More.

She keeps her sanity by creating worlds to escape to and characters to hang out with.

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Find Denise and her books

Website / Twitter / Facebook

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Here
On the Other Side #1
November 11, 2011

Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.

Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

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