Blog Tour: Ignited by A.M Deese Review

Ignited by A.M Deese

Genre:YA

Release Date: March 2018

RadiantTeen

Rating: 4/5

A NOBLE DAUGHTER.

A FORMER SLAVE.

SCORCHED EARTH AND DANGEROUS GAMES.

“Jura imagined it sounded like rain.”


Juggling death is nothing new for seventeen-year-old Jura, daughter of the First of the Thirteen, successive rulers of the Republic of the Sand Sea. However, when a blood chain ensnares her father, she is thrust into the seat of power and forced to rule her elders.

“To Tylak, water had never tasted sweeter.”

Jura must track down her father’s assassin and balance a country on the verge of collapse. To find the Prince of Shadows and uncover the truth, Jura puts her trust in Tylak, a former slave accused of stealing from the Everflame—a man she once condemned to death.

In a world where water is currency and enemies lurk around every corner, Jura will use her wits or risk igniting a world war.

Review:

I loved this book so much! What first caught my eye was the cover. I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but it doesn't hurt to have a stunning cover. The other thing that made me want to read this book is the summary. It's so intriguing. I've always loved stories of the high-class girl and the peasant boy. Especially when they start off absolutely hating each other.

The format of the book is a little interesting. The point of view switches between five characters. At first it was slightly confusing but it was amazing to see these five, seemingly unconnected, stories come together. It's not something I personally would have done but Deese pulls it off without a hitch.

I love the characters in this story. The main character is Jura, who is mentioned in the summary. Defiantly a strong female character who knows how to get what she wants. 

Next, there's Tylak, also mentioned above. Not to choose favorites or anything...but Tylaks my favorite. He's smart, clever, and brave. He also knows how to get what he wants but he goes about it differently then Jura. 

Thirdly, we have Ash, a retired gladiator. I have to be honest I hated him at first. He grew on me throughout the book. 

Then we have Beshar. Have to admit, he's my least favorite character. He's cunning and deceitful. He like's to hold his power over others. 

Last but defiantly not least, a little girl named Kay. She's seven years old and the daughter of a Dragon Breeder. Yes there are dragons in this book and yes it is awesome.  She's strong willed and strong tempered, but adorable as well. She is very obedient to her parents but only when it suits her. 

Overall this is an amazing book and I can't wait for the next one. Defiantly recommend for anyone who loves fantasy. And if you read The Winner's Curse trilogy and loved it (I did too) then you will love this book.

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Pre-Orderlinks: Radiant Crown Pub.  and Google Play

About the author:  Alexis Marrero Deese is an avid reader of young adult and fantasy. Her favorite authors include Brandon Sanderson, Jaqueline Carey, and Orson Scott Card. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing and a sun tan she misses dearly since her move to northern Georgia. She has a passion for cooking, spends entirely too much time on Pinterest, and is a self-proclaimed dog training expert to her family’s legion of dogs.

Author Links: Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

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This Tour Put on By YA Bound Book Tours

  

Winter's Siren Book Blitz

Winter’s Siren
Krystal Jane Ruin
Publication date: November 1st 2017
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

For the last five years, Fawn has been the star soprano of a secluded opera house, forced to sing for her kidnapper.
His daughter, Devi, waits patiently in the shadows, hiding a face so horrible that no one who’s seen it will look at it again.
As Fawn plots her escape, whispers spread through the shaded corridors of dark sorcery, warning her that she must flee by the next opening night.
But when Fawn draws close to the exit, it’s Devi who’s standing in her way, leading Fawn to suspect that Devi has something to gain if she fails.
(a dark reimagining of Swan Lake)

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EXCERPT:

Frosty air nips at my nose. I stand almost knee deep in fresh fallen snow, letting the diffused sunlight hit my face. There is no sound. Peace settles over me. In this moment, I truly feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere.
Something cold and wet explodes on the back of my neck. For a moment, I fear the worst. A boil. Pus. My father’s description of my mother’s face plays out in my mind.
But then I hear Andrew laughing behind me. I touch the rough skin on my neck and bring a shaky and damp glove to my face. Snow. It’s just snow.
It’s the middle of the day, and my face is uncovered. To make everything worse, it’s bright outside. Freezing and overcast, but bright.
My hands fly to my face automatically.
“Are you going to let me get away with that?” Andrew laughs again.
I twist around and peek at him through my fingers.
He stands before me, his arms spread wide. A thick coat covers his arms, and in his gloved hands, he holds another snowball. “You have two seconds to stop me!”
I flip my hood over my head and drop down to gather snow in my hands.
Another snowball bursts against my head. The wetness plasters my hair to my face. I hurl my deformed ball in his direction. It misses him completely.
Another wad of snow lands on my neck while I gather a larger, rounder ball of snow. “Cheating!” I throw my handful at him. It lands weakly by his knees.
“Here, let me help you.” He climbs towards me and gathers a nice, solid ball in his fist. He hands this to me, and then stands back and spreads his arms wide again. “Try again.”
I throw it square at his nose.
“Ow!” He covers his face and cries out dramatically. “It’s in my eyes!”
“Stop it! Are you serious?” I navigate closer to him, and he falls back into the snow. I run to his side and hear laughter bubbling out from behind his hands. “Jerk!” I shovel snow over his body, and he laughs all the while.
Then he goes still. I stop.
“Andrew?” I lean in close. “Andrew?”
He lunges out of his shallow grave and tackles me to the ground.
A panicked scream leaves my body as he lands on top of me, heavy and warm. Then a strange sound comes out of my mouth. Something that’s never come out of it before. Laughter.
His braid hangs down, inches from my sunken cheek. Suddenly aware of how close his head is to mine, the laughter dies in my throat, and I slap my gloves to my cheeks.
“You have such beautiful eyes,” he says.
My breath is trapped in my chest. It hurts. I don’t know how much he can see of my face—my hood is pulled low and my hair and hands cover everything else—but I fear it’s too much.
“Andrew . . .”

Author Bio:
Krystal is the author of supernatural and paranormal fiction, living in the Tennessee Valley with a collection of swords and daggers. When she's not hoarding stuffed pandas, hourglasses, and Hello Kitty replicas, she can be found in YouTube hole or blogging about books, writing, and random things at KrystalSquared.net.

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Pen & Zander Book Blitz

Pen & Xander
Laekan Zea Kemp
Publication date: October 31st 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Pen Prado has a passion for cooking. Specifically, cooking her father’s food in her father’s restaurant. It’s the heart of their immigrant neighborhood, a place where everyone belongs, and second chances are always on the menu. Except for Pen. Despite the fact that there’s something almost magic about her food, her father can’t imagine anything worse than her following in his footsteps. And when Pen confesses to keeping a secret from her family, he fires her, ensuring she never will.
Xander Amaro is undocumented but that doesn’t stop Ignacio Prado from offering him a job at his restaurant. For Xander, it’s a chance to make amends and to sever his toxic relationship with the druglord, El Cantil–a man whose been like a father to him since his own disappeared. Soon after, his mother abandoned him too, leaving behind a void that not even his abuelo can fill. Until he meets Pen.
Both seeking a place where they feel like they truly belong, they end up finding each other, and in the face of tremendous fear and self-doubt, they end up finding themselves.

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EXCERPT:

The parking lot hasn’t changed; the science building looks the same as that first day of school five months ago. But as I sit in my car, watching girls I met during orientation skip up the steps, hugging their bags, excited to play nurse, I try to convince myself that something inside me has. That today I’ll actually be able to go inside. That today I will stop lying and be the person they want me to be.
Class starts in approximately seven minutes—the class I should have taken and passed last semester, moving me one step closer to a degree in nursing.
Six minutes.
I sit in the parking lot, watching the clock tick down. The car is in park but I can’t bring myself to turn off the engine.
Walk inside.
I turn off the car, reminding myself how much I’ve already wasted on tuition and books.
You can do this. You can.
I reach for my bag.
Get. Out. Of. The. Car.
And then I can’t breathe.
My mother’s shoes.
All I can think about are my mother’s shoes.
How they’ve sat in the same spot by the door for almost twenty years. Scuffed and cracked, the shadow of her foot pressed to the leather even when the laces are loose. I imagine every hallway they’ve ever walked down, every door they’ve propped open, every mess they’ve ever stepped in, every second they’ve held her up when all she wanted was to collapse. Because one of her patients couldn’t remember her face or their daughter’s name or how to speak.
When she lost one I’d wake to the knock of the rolling pin and the smell of dough warming on the hot plate. Sometimes I’d try to take the pin from her but there was something about the force, about the rhythm that reminded her how to breathe. We’d work in silence and three-dozen tortillas later she’d wrap them in foil and drive them to the family. The family that only visited once a month. That would accept my mother’s food without acknowledging that she was more family to the deceased than they were.
And then the next day she would go back to work.
For almost twenty years. She went back.
And if I step out of this car, if I walk up those steps, if I sit at that desk and pretend…how long will I be sitting there before I realize I’m trapped?
I take a deep breath, the scent of a thousand shifts at the restaurant tucked into the fabric of the front seat. Mango and cilantro and epazote, tomatillos and roasted pepitas and tortillas. I can’t sleep without those smells tangled in my hair, without those flavors still on my tongue.
So I have to decide what’s scarier: living a life that doesn’t belong to me or losing the one I love. If the truth breaks my father’s heart, I know he’ll take it from me. But if it doesn’t, if he understands, if I can make him understand, I can be free.
I weigh each option, simmering in the anxiety they provoke, in the hope. Because I have to do what scares me. It’s the only way to ward off the helplessness. To stay in control. I always have to be in control.
Which means that today is not the day I go inside.
My stomach drops, my hand reaching to put the car in drive again.
Today is the day I tell them the truth.

Author Bio:
Laekan is a writer and explorer extraordinaire who grew up in the flatlands of West Texas. She graduated from Texas Tech with a BA in Creative Writing and is the author of the multi-cultural New Adult novels The Things They Didn't Bury, Orphans of Paradise, Breathing Ghosts, and the Young Adult Paranormal series The Girl In Between. Her upcoming contemporary romance is slated for release during the summer of 2017!

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Piper Blog Tour: Review

Hey guys! Welcome to the last stop in the Piper Blog Tour! Enjoy!

Authors: Jay Asher and Jessica Freeburg

Illustrator: Jeff Stokely

Genre: Graphic Novel

Rating: 4

BOOK DESCRIPTION

One girl's fairy-tale prince becomes her worst nightmare in this eerie graphic-novel retelling of the Pied Piper legend from Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why.

Bestselling author Jay Asher and co-author Jessica Freeburg brilliantly reimagine the classic Pied Piper legend as a powerful story about loneliness, love, and vengeance.

Long ago, in a small village in the middle of a deep, dark forest, there lived a lonely young girl named Maggie. Maggie is deaf and is shunned by her village because of this. Her only comfort comes from inventing stories and dreaming of one day finding her fairy-tale love.

When Maggie meets the mysterious Piper, it seems that all her wishes are coming true. Spellbound, Maggie falls for him and plunges headfirst into his magical world. But as she grows closer to the Piper, Maggie discovers that he has a dark side ... and an even darker past. Will the boy of Maggie's dreams end up being her worst nightmare? 

Review: I'll have to admit I've never been one for graphic novels. You'll find that this is the first review I've done for one. Despite the fact that I don't like them I was intrigued by this story. I've actually never heard the story of the Pied Piper so I don't have much to go on for comparing and contrasting the original to this retelling but I defiantly enjoyed it.

What I loved even more then the story however, was the art work. It has absolutely incredible art. It's very important that if a book has pictures that they are clear and carry the story, especially since most of the plot comes from the pictures and not the words. As they say, a picture tells a thousand words. This book doesn't fail in that area. There were times I was confused because I'm not necessarily used to reading graphic novels but the pictures helped me figure out what was happening and get back on track. 

The main character in this story is named Maggie and she's deaf. I absolutely love this aspect of the story. I watch(ed) Switched at Birth and I've always been super into deaf characters and culture, I'm also taking sign language right now. The villagers treat her terribly (kinda like Belle, she's beautiful but odd) but she still is kind and nice, She doesn't believe even the worst of people are worth nothing. Truly a character to look up to.

The piper is a very interesting character. He's kind to only those he thinks deserve it. He also steals children... So yeah. I honestly wish there had been a redemption ending for him, but that's just me longing for more fluff. I do however, understand where the authors were going with this "real world" type ending instead of your everyday fantasy-fairytale.

I overall really enjoyed it. It had great plot and characters. if you're into graphic novels (Or even if your not) you should defiantly give this book a shot.

AUTHORS BIO

Jay Asher's debut novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, has regularly appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list during its first decade in print, selling over 2.5 million copies in the United States alone. The Future of Us, his second novel, was co-authored with Printz Honor winner Carolyn Mackler. His third novel, What Light, will be released in October 2016. His novels have been translated into thirty-seven languages. He lives with his family in a California. Follow him @jayasherguy. 

Jessica Freeburg is the author of paranormal fiction (Living in Shadows) and narrative nonfiction works focused on creepy legends and dark moments in history including Monsters of the Midwest, Fight for Survival, and Collapse and Chaos. To blend her love of writing with her passion for history and the paranormal, Jessica founded Ghost Stories Ink, a group of authors, illustrators, and filmmakers who visit historic locations and perform paranormal investigations for creative inspiration. She also serves as the assistant regional advisor for the Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Follow her @JessicaFreeburg.

ILLUSTRATOR BIO

Jeff Stokely is the co-creator and artist of Eisner-nominated comic series The Spire. He is the artist of acclaimed series Six-Gun Gorilla and Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Witches, The Reason For Dragons.

Mick & Michelle Book Blitz

Mick & Michelle
Nina Rossing
Published by: Harmony Ink Press
Publication date: October 31st 2017
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Young Adult

Fifteen-year-old Mick Mullins has a great life: his parents are sweet, his sister is tolerable, and his friendships are solid. But as summer descends on Queens, he prepares to turn his carefree existence upside down by disclosing a secret he has kept long enough. It’s time to work up the courage to reveal that he is not a boy, but a girl—and that her name is Michelle. Having always been the perfect, good boy, Michelle is terrified that the complicated truth will disappoint, hurt, or push away the people closest to her. She can’t continue hiding for much longer, though, because her body is turning into that of a man’s, and she is desperate to stop the development—desperate enough to consider self-medicating with hormones.
Most of all, Michelle fears that Grandpa, who is in a nursing home after a near fatal stroke, won’t survive the shock if he finds out that his favorite grandchild, and the only boy, is a girl. If she kills her beloved Grandpa by leaving Mick behind, she isn’t sure embracing her real identity will be worth the loss.

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EXCERPT:

As we walk down the street next to each other, it strikes me that the nagging feeling I’ve been having lately is also down to him, because I look too much like my father. I’m the same height as him but skinnier. I adjust my walk so I don’t mirror his familiar swagger. I wish I didn’t have his hair, down to the identical whorl slightly to the right at the back of our heads. His hair is darker than mine, so dark auburn it looks black when wet, but thin and limp, always flyaway, so no good for keeping long. Buzz cut material, and that looks fine enough on him. My hair is quite short by convenience only. I would have liked to have my mother’s hair, which is thick and robust, a haystack in the mornings, and she uses a straightening iron to control it. If I tried that iron on my hair, I think it’d just melt away and disappear.
“How does summer feel so far?” Dad says and waves at Mrs. McAtee, who used to babysit him when he was little. I don’t think Dad has fond memories of her, because she never babysat me or Ash. No one outside the family was ever allowed to babysit us. “Any plans?” he adds after I fail to reply in the three seconds it takes him to grow impatient.
“Deliver papers and go busking,” I say. I was supposed to wait tables at Pepito’s Italian, but they went bust two weeks ago. I haven’t found anything else. The paper route job stopped last week, because I foolishly resigned when I got the gig with Pepito’s. As for busking… well, that’s more of a wild idea than a realistic plan.
“Busking? You only know three songs.”
“Five songs, and people move around, so they won’t catch on to my limited repertoire. Besides, I can always learn a couple more songs.”
“And what will you do if I, or your ma, come and catch you soliciting funds?”
“I can outrun you easily, Dad. The both of you. Rookie Ryan too.”
“Yeah, yeah. Smart-mouth. We have an alternative plan for you this summer. Busking is not a part of it. Tell you over dinner.”
“What? Why not right away? Are you finally paying for Wizarding Summer School now that I’ve grown out of it?”
“Wait and see.”

Author Bio:
Nina Rossing lives in Norway, where the winters are long and the summers short. Despite the brilliant nature surrounding her, she spends more time in front of her computer, or with a book in her hands, than in the great outdoors (though you may find her out on her mountain bike if the weather is good). She works as a high school teacher, which in her opinion is probably the best job in the world.

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