Teaser Tuesdays - Liar's Island

This starts out really fun and intriguing. I'm really enjoying it so far.


The sound of cracking wood somewhere below their feet suddenly interrupted his sense of wonder.
Rodrick and the priest stared at one another, wide-eyed. "Was that... the hull?" she asked.

(page 61, Liar's Island by Tim Pratt)




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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Master of the Opera - Now Available in Print!

Jeffe Kennedy's e-serial Master of the Opera is now available in print!


Master of the Opera
by Jeffe Kennedy

An aria for lost souls

Fresh out of college, Christine Davis is thrilled to begin a summer internship at the prestigious Santa Fe Opera House. But on her first day, she discovers that her dream job has a dark side. Beneath the theater, ghostly music echoes through a sprawling maze of passageways. At first, Christy thinks she’s hearing things. But when a tall masked man steps out of the shadows—and into her arms—she knows he’s not a phantom of her imagination. What she can’t deny is that he is the master of her desire. But when her predecessor—a missing intern—is found dead, Christy wonders if she’s playing with fire…

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Buy it here

Prefer ebooks?
Find buy links for the first part of the e-serial here

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About Jeffe Kennedy:

Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook.

Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and has been nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose, has been nominated for best fantasy romance of the year. A fifth series, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, released starting with Going Under, followed by Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Connor Goldsmith of Fuse Literary.

http://jeffekennedy.com

https://www.facebook.com/Author.Jeffe.Kennedy

https://twitter.com/jeffekennedy

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1014374.Jeffe_Kennedy

On McPig's Wishlist - Above

This sounds like it might be a beautiful read.


Above
by Leah Bobet

IRIDESCENCE.
I read that word in one of Atticus's thick old books once. When I went to Jack to ask what it meant,he held his hands out and they glowed so gentle I thought they might kiss the air, and since that day I wanted a place that was iridescent, that lit without burning. Being in love is sort of like that, when it's real. When it's true.

Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her blond hair shining and her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above--as does Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.

But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. Forced to survive in the most dangerous place he can imagine, Matthew strives to unravel the mystery of the shadows' powers and Safe's own secret history. For he knows he must find a way to remake Safe--not just for himself and his friends, but for Ariel, who's again faced with a life she fled, and who needs him more than ever before.

Savage Drift - Book Review

Savage Drift (Monument 14 #3)
by Emmy Laybourne

What is it about:
The stunningly fierce conclusion to Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14 trilogy.

The survivors of the Monument 14 have finally made it to the safety of a Canadian refugee camp. Dean and Alex are cautiously starting to hope that a happy ending might be possible.

But for Josie, separated from the group and trapped in a brutal prison camp for exposed Type Os, things have gone from bad to worse. Traumatized by her experiences, she has given up all hope of rescue or safety.

Meanwhile, scared by the government's unusual interest in her pregnancy, Astrid (with her two protectors, Dean and Jake in tow) joins Niko on his desperate quest to be reunited with his lost love Josie.

What did I think of it:
I really liked the first two books in this trilogy, but somehow it took me a while to pick up the last book.

The viewpoint switches between Dean and Josie.

I must say that Josie's story was the most intense, and I was invested in it from the start. The camp where Josie is imprisoned is brutal, and I was scared for what might happen to Josie and her friends.

Dean's story got on my nerves at times. The whole Dean/Astrid/Jake drama, and Astrid's pregnancy didn't really interest me. The one character in that storyline that I could understand was Niko.

So I confess I at times skimmed Dean's dramatics to get back to Josie's perils.

Still I very much enjoyed this book, and I think Laybourne did a great job in bringing this trilogy to a relatively believable close. (Yup, there was one very convenient cop out imo)

All in all this is a cool trilogy that I will certainly put on my keeper shelves.

Why should you read it:
It's a mostly realistic YA Disaster read.

Teaser Tuesdays - Matched

I'm late to the party, but so far I'm really enjoying this book.


"Cassia," he whispers. "I am giving you something you won't understand, yet. But I think you will someday. You, more than the rest. And, remember. It's all right to wonder."

(page 83, ARC of Matched by Ally Condie)




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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

School of Fear - DNF Book Review

School of Fear (School of Fear #1)
by Gitty Daneshvari

What is it about:
Everyone is afraid of something...

Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, especially spiders.

Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying.

Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces.

Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water.

With very few options left, the parents of these four twelve year-olds send them to the highly elusive and exclusive School of Fear to help them overcome their phobias. But when their peculiar teacher, Mrs. Wellington, and her unconventional teaching methods turn out to be more frightening than even their fears, the foursome realize that this just may be the scariest summer of their lives.

What did I think of it, and why didn't I finish it:
This being a book about a school where children have to face their fears, I was looking forward to a scary, exciting story.

It started out ok. The children and their fears are introduced, and they're send to the School of Fear.

Nothing happened...

The story was slow, and trying too hard to be quirky and weird. When I was halfway through the book, and nothing scary, creepy, or exciting had happened, I decided to put it down.

Maybe I gave up too soon, and it gets really good after that point, but I didn't have the patience to find out.

This book might appeal to readers who are looking for a read with strange characters, but for me it didn't click.

Why should you read it:
It's a quirky read for young readers.

Jim Webster - Spotlight

Today I'm handing over the blog to Jim Webster, so he can tell you all about the exciting things happening today!



I’d like to announce that 1st August 2015 is the culmination of a cunning master-plan which is aimed at getting as much good literature in front of you as possible.

Unfortunately if I’m honest it’s just something that’s happened in spite of my best efforts, and I’ve picked the 1st of August because it’s almost convenient.

You see, after discussion with my publishers, AUK, it was decided that the four Fantasy novels they’ve published of mine really deserved to be released in paperback. But being methodical types they suggested that I re-proofread them first. So that’s fine, that’s done.

So
‘Swords for a Dead Lady’

‘Dead Man Riding East’

‘The Flames of the City’

‘Learning a Hard Trade’

These four are available in paperback from 1st August. Book sellers will be able to get them through their usual wholesalers or if you want to buy from Amazon, they’re there.

 
If you’ve never seen them before, Swords for a Dead Lady can be found at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swords-Dead-Lady-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B006C4C8OO
or
http://www.amazon.com/Swords-Dead-Lady-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B006C4C8OO


But I’d also had this cunning plan, a truly brilliant idea. Rather than doing a full novel, I’d do a series of short stories, say about 20,000 words each. They’d be detective stories set in my fantasy world with one of my more popular protagonists ‘in charge.’
Not only that but I’d have half a dozen of them set up to go, and I’d release them at strict regular intervals so people came to expect them. Perhaps it’s a case of trying to build the market?

But anyway, thus and so, ‘The Port Naain Intelligencer’ was born, and the first story in the series, ‘Flotsam or Jetsam’ is out on, yes you’ve guessed it. The 1st August. This has meant that whilst proof-reading four novels I was also writing, editing etc 120,000 words of new work. But anyway, ‘Flotsam or Jetsam’ is available as an e-book on pretty well every platform, but for those who use kindle it’s at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flotsam-Jetsam-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B011VHS21Y/
or
http://www.amazon.com/Flotsam-Jetsam-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B011VHS21Y/

To quote the Amazon synopsis, “Benor arrives in Port Naain intent on the simple task of producing a handbook for merchants. Then there is a murder, and a vengeful family who will stop at nothing to silence those who found the body. Suddenly Benor’s life is no longer simple.”



Finally there was something of a diversion. In the ‘Port Naain Intelligencer’, Benor’s landlord and friend Tallis is a poet. So he drops lines of poetry into his conversation.
But Mike Rose-Steel my editor is also a Poet. (With a capital P indeed.) So he asked if he could borrow Tallis. He then proceeded to write ten poems. Benor supplied cultural and historical background to them and Tallis’s somewhat bitter contemporary Lancet Foredeck provided literacy criticism.

Thus, ‘Lambent Dreams’ was born.


This fine work of cutting edge cultural relevance is also available as an e-book at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lambent-Dreams-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B01278WPWI/
or
http://www.amazon.con/Lambent-Dreams-Jim-Webster-ebook/dp/B01278WPWI/

As the synopsis says, “The Poetry of Tallis Steelyard. This appropriately slim volume is the fruit of a unique artistic collaboration, bringing together the writings of one of Port Naain's most major minor poet with the personal commentary of an esteemed cartographer and traveller, and the guiding notes of an informed poet-critic. You cannot say you have not been warned.”

As a special treat, a way of saying thank-you to those who’ve bought my books in the past, Lambent Dreams will be free from 31st July to the 4th August. Admittedly it’s only £0.99 normally but it’s the thought that counts.

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Find Jim Webster online:

Blog: https://jandbvwebster.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JimWebster6

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jim.webster.10297