Reveal & Giveaway: Elevated by Elana Johnson

About the Book
The last person seventeen-year-old Eleanor Livingston wants to see on the elevator—let alone get stuck with—is her ex-boyfriend Travis, the guy she's been avoiding for five months.

Plagued with the belief that when she speaks the truth, bad things happen, Elly hasn’t told Trav anything. Not why she broke up with him and cut off all contact. Not what happened the day her father returned from his deployment to Afghanistan. And certainly not that she misses him and still thinks about him everyday.

But with nowhere to hide and Travis so close it hurts, Elly’s worried she won’t be able to contain her secrets for long. She’s terrified of finally revealing the truth, because she can’t bear to watch a tragedy befall the boy she still loves.

Buy Links: Kobo


Praise for ELEVATED:
"ELEVATED will take you on an emotionally gripping journey through the highs and lows of first love."
~Carolee Dean, author of Take Me There and Forget Me Not

"Poignant, raw, and intense, ELEVATED is a novel that will grip your heart and linger in your mind long after you turn the last page."
~Stasia Ward Kehoe, author of Audition and The Sound of Letting Go

About the Author
Elana Johnson’s work, including Possession, Surrender, Abandon, and Regret, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster), is available now everywhere books are sold. Her popular ebook, From the Query to the Call, is also available for download, as well as a Possession short story, Resist. School teacher by day, Query Ninja by night, you can find her online at her personal blog or Twitter. She also co-founded the Query Tracker blog, and contributes to the League of Extraordinary Writers.

Social Media Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Wattpad | League of Extraordinary Writers   WriteOnCon | Goodreads

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Possession Series by Elana Johnson: Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome to the Possession series scavenger hunt! 

We're celebrating the release of the third and final book, ABANDON, in the series. You can find out the details of the series scavenger hunt on Elana's blog. Elana has given us a short excerpt today from Abandon. This is Jag and you'll be able to find the city clue in the excerpt. Once you know the city, you can ENTER TO WIN a prize package of signed paperbacks, as well as a $50 Amazon gift card.

Not only that, but there is a series swag package up for grabs every day during the scavenger hunt, which runs until June 14. Be sure to enter in the Rafflecopter widget below. a Rafflecopter giveaway Now, onto the excerpt!

 

Abandon Excerpt June 11 -

To continue the hunt today, go to The Wormhole. If you get lost, you can always go back to Elana's blog and click through to the right links. Happy hunting!

Review: Surrender&Possession by Elana Johnson

Author: Elana Johnson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication: June 7, 2011
Source: Publisher via Book Tour

Synopsis:Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

 But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them….starting by brainwashing Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous—everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

Thoughts: Violet has just been arrested for being caught outside with a boy, which is against the rules. There are many things that are against the rules and with her match, Zenn; Vi has broken eight of them. However, this crime doesn't fit the punishment, she is being sent to the Badlands and until then she gets locked up in a cell with the strange boy, Jag. She finds it odd that the very crime she commits, that they would do such a thing...nothing makes sense but she will soon learn that everything is much more complicated than they seem. And her cooperation is important for those that want her to gain power, yet Vi has other ideas. 

I like the characters, though they are extremely moody and cry a lot. Vi comes off as an explosive character with a short fuse. She can go from happy to angry in seconds then to crying the next. Jag is an intriguing character, though he is more of a puzzle. He closes off his emotions to Vi and then sometimes he opens up to her, leaving himself raw...he also cries, too. I like the scenes with the two of them together and watching their feelings blossom, though it happens rather quickly. They both are important because they have the ability to manipulate people with their special talents. Vi appears to have more sensitivity to technology and the mind controlling. I did find parts of the dialogue confusing, specifically when she was in Jag's dreams but the way Violet describes it as if she is Jag and I don't feel like the transitions into the change in perspective flowed very well with the pace of the rest of the book. 

I really like the idea of this world, though I am curious how the fact that the people can control minds, so why do they need the tech?  I do want to know how this is going to pan out in the next book. Overall, though slow at times this is an okay read about a unique dystopian world.

Author: Elana Johnson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication: June 5, 2012
Source: Publisher via Book Tour

Synopsis: Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control…
Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.
All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque....

Thoughts: In this installment of the series, Vi has been brainwashed into forgetting about Jag and Raine, her new roomie, is responsible for making sure that doesn't change. Raine along with Zenn are playing both sides as that is the best way to gaining control and the key to helping Vi remember who she is. Gunner, the boy Raine has been attempting to recruit forever holds the clue to spearheading the resistance against the government control. As the get closer to finding the answer, things start spiraling faster out of control and lines start to blur...making it even harder to decipher who is true to the cause and who is just playing the game.

Raine is not as outwardly strong a character as Vi, though she does toe the line of being a good citizen and a rebel, she is afraid to leave Freedom. It feels like she still trying to discover where she fits into all this chaos. Raine has such an emotional battle that she goes through in this book, which is understandable because she is living a secret life that she is trying to keep hidden from her father. I did like this one part where she showed some fire towards the end. Gunner is okay, though the romance between him Raine is sweet, the constant battle to gain some control of their own circumstances seems to interfere with them getting to pursue it more. Basically, the rules forced upon them keep them apart as well as the fight to be free. The most well played character would have to be Thane Meyers, who is also Vi's father. He is an enigma, and he surprises me in this book, I just don't know what to expect from him and I'm wondering what he has planned for the crew in the next book. The ending was okay, though it seems similar to the how the first book ended. Overall, though the pace is slow, this is an okay read for those that like a technological aspect mixed into a dystopian theme. 

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Links to find/buy your book:
Simon & Schuster | Amazon | B&N

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Cover Reveal: Abandon by Elana Johnson

Very pretty! Thanks to ATOMR for allowing me to participate in this reveal.

Book description: 

seduced by power,
broken by control,
and consumed by love...

Vi has made her choice between Jag and Zenn, and the Resistance may have suffered for it. But with the Thinkers as strong as ever, the rebels still have a job to do. Vi knows better than anyone that there's more at stake than a few broken hearts. 

But there is a traitor among them...and the choices he makes could lead to the total destruction of everything Vi has fought for.

Vi, Jag, and Zenn must set their problems aside for the Resistance to have any hope of ending the Thinkers' reign. Their success means everything...and their failure means death.

ALSO: Elana is running a Pinterest contest for the cover. She wants to get 500 pins (or repins) over the next two days. If we can get that many, she'll pick someone who pinned the cover to win a $50 Amazon gift card.  It's so easy to do this. All you have to do is click this PIN IT button and select one of your boards to pin the cover to. Elana has done everything else! Don't have a Pinterest board yet? Put it on your Tumblr page. Your Facebook page. Your twitter stream. Elana will count those too! Just be sure to tag her (@ElanaJ on twitter, Possession by Elana Johnson on Facebook).