Giveaway & Blitz: Lost by M. Lathan

Lost by M. Lathan
Series: Hidden, #2
Publication date: June 20th 2013
Genre: YA Paranormal

Synopsis:
Three months ago, Christine Grant found herself, her love, and impossible friends, while losing the memories of the biggest piece of her past.

Now, her powers are spinning out of control and must be tamed by the woman who saved the world, the same woman Christine is predicted to kill in less than a month.

Wanting to punish catty girls was just the beginning. It’s only a matter of time before she discovers that the world is not as safe from her as she hoped it was.

Excerpt Two

I’d thought I hated Sienna Martin. That was nothing, a childish grudge. I used to hate Remi until my heart started bleeding for her. That was nothing too. Hate was what I felt for Kamon.

I’d give anything to know what he was up to, pull him out of the shadows and into the light. Was he getting close? Did he know who and what I was?

I welcomed the energy that rushed over my skin, and his name echoed in my head.

He was in New Orleans. I knew it for a fact.

I faintly heard when Nate turned off the TV. I didn’t open my eyes, too wrapped up in the buzzing, in the power I pretended I didn’t have.

Behind my eyelids, I saw a blurry picture of my New Orleans backyard.

Kamon chuckled, circling Lydia Shaw near the pool. “Where is she?” he asked.

“That’s not your business, and stay away from this house.”

“She is very much so my business. A girl with her potential does not come along every day. I noticed it the first time I saw her. I knew then.”

Lydia laughed and stepped closer to his face. “I can’t wait for this to be over,” she said.

My muscles quivered. Lydia and Kamon shook with me.

“Me either. I have big plans. I’ve been working on my new title. What do you think of Emperor Kamon? Too much?” He laughed. “There’s finally a date after your dash. I guess I’m lucky Leah’s so unstable. I know you’re terrified. It’s getting so close. July 4^th.”

I shook even harder and heard a far away scream.

Lydia spun around, and Remi wiggled her fingers at her, a taunting wave. Her jet-black hair dangled to her waist now. My Master, My Lord, in a fancy, ancient script, was permanently inked on her stomach, right above her low-cutting leather pants.

“Remi is one of the best things to ever happen to me. Her first offering brought my nemesis barging through the doors. In time, she’ll bring me Leah. I’ve seen July 4^th, Lydia. It is your pet’s destiny, and I’m going to help her fulfill it.”

My backyard trembled like an earthquake was ravishing New Orleans, and someone screamed, “Emma, hold her head!”

Nate.

“Wake up, Chris,” Emma said.

I opened my eyes. Nate and Em were shaking me and swatting at my cheeks. Blood was everywhere – on Nate’s hands, his chest, my pillow.

I’d had another fit. Correction. I was still having a fit, shaking and bleeding and buzzing. Em’s thoughts were frantic and in fluent French. But understandable. I had a feeling she could speak Chinese, and I would understand it right now.

She snapped and disappeared, leaving me alone with Nate. His face vibrated as I shook, and he braced me against his chest.

 After a moment, his body tensed against mine, and he drew his arms away, no longer holding me. My nails were in his sides, and they didn’t want to let go.

Embers blew around us, and found their way to his head, circling and sparkling, crowning him with fire. I coughed from the smoke tickling my throat. He didn’t seem to see them at all.

A deep voice I’d never heard screamed, “Dali!” It echoed several times after. With each repeat, Nate clutched his head tighter, in pain.

All day I had been questioning where I belonged. Now I knew. I belonged in a cage, not allowed to roam freely around my enemies.

I didn’t want to hurt him. Or myself. I needed to listen to my body. Someone had told me that. Someone …

A flash of light blinded me, and Sophia and Emma appeared when it cleared.

Sophia pried my clenched jaw open. Something warm filled my mouth and slithered down my throat.

Then there was nothing but darkness.

Book 1 on sale for 99 cents!

Amazon | BN

Author Bio
M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.
Website | Goodreads

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Blitz & Giveaway: Rush by Eve Silver

Rush (The Game #1) by Eve Silver
Release Date: June 11, 2013
Publisher: Harper Teen

Summary from Goodreads:
So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know?

When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

    

Teaser #1:
He smiles, a faint curve of his lips that reveals the barest hint of a long dimple carved in his right cheek. “No, but I can read your expression. And I’ve been doing this long enough that I know what most people tend to think when they first open their eyes.”
“Doing what long enough?”
“This,” he says, and nothing more.
A second of silence stretches into two. Though I can’t see behind his glasses, I have the feeling he’s not looking at me anymore, that he’s scanning the area, looking for…something. But as I stare at him, I see me—tiny distorted reflections of me in the shiny, convex lenses.

Copyright © 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.

Teaser #2:
I stare at the things in front of me: the Drau. I can’t look away.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember Jackson talking about Medusa.
Don’t look at their eyes.
Their mercury eyes.
They’re poison.
They will kill me.

Copyright © 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.

Teaser #3:
Color and sound explode, too bright, too loud. Even the air on my skin feels like it’s too much. My fingers go lax. The bag’s handle slides down my palm, then along my fingers to the tips, impossibly slow. The world tips and tilts and I flail for balance.
Luka grabs my hand and holds tight.
I blink. My house, my open front door, Dad, they’re all gone. My breath comes in short gasps and every muscle in my body feels like it’s knotted up tight.
I’m standing in a grassy clearing bounded by trees.
The lobby.
We’ve been pulled.

Copyright © 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.

About the Author Eve Silver lives with her gamer husband and sons, sometimes in Canada, but often in worlds she dreams up. She loves kayaking and sunshine, dogs and desserts, and books, lots and lots of books. Watch for the first book in Eve’s new teen series, THE GAME: RUSH, coming from Katherine Tegen Books, June 2013. She also writes books for adults.

     

***GIVEAWAY*** Signed copy of Rush, US and Canada only. 

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My Sunday Post #24

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. 
~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ which is now hosted by The Mod Podge Bookshelf

Last Week on the Blog

Sunday Post #23
Reapers's Legacy by Tim Lebbon ~Review
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy ~ Audio Review
Waiting On Wednesday #23: Infinite by Jodi Meadows
Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington ~ Audio Review

Tenative Schedule for this week 

Sunday Post #24
Rush by Eve Silver~Blitz & Giveaway
Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood ~ Review
Lost by M. Lathan ~Blitz
Waiting on Wednesday #24
Confessions of An Almost Girlfriend by Louise Rozett ~Review
Impostor by Suzanne Winnacker ~Review

Giveaways

4 Year Blogoversary Celebration!

Alyx Rayer Chronicles by S.J. Pierce

New This Week 

Review

Received from Author
Thanks to Derek the Ghost

Received from Publisher via Netgalley 
Thanks to Random House Publishing

Tours

None this week!

Notes

I have had a headache that I just can't shake, so some reviews that I was going to write last week, have transferred to this week. Hopefully, my brain will let me get it done. 

Enjoy Your Week :)

Audio: Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Author: Jessica Shirvington
Narrators:  Matilda Reed
Title: Between the Lives
Format: Unabridged Audio 
Length: 8 hrs, 5 mins
Publication: 2013
Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Source: Library
~Website

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is... 

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

Some would think Sabine is lucky to have two lives but to her it's not all perfect. She has to be careful what happens to her in one life because it could carry over into the other. So, she's been very meticulous to not get hurt or change her appearance in any way. Then one day she falls and breaks her arm and as midnight approaches she begins to panic about how she will explain the damage. However, to her surprise this time the physical damage didn't carry over and for once in her lives, maybe she has a choice. All Sabine wants is to live one life and she takes it upon herself to test her theory. What transpires will change both her lives forever. 

Sabine comes off as little crazy but she's smart and calculating. Everything she does to find out if there is a glitch in her situation and she knows all the risks, however stupid they may be. Her biggest problem seems to be convincing everyone else that she isn't loony but seriously her story is unbelievable. The people she trusts the most betray her and she finds herself in a precarious situation with no freedom whatsoever in one of her lives. She meets Ethan, who seems angry with her and she doesn't understand why he doesn't like her. As time progresses they come build an intriguing friendship and though he not entirely convinced she has an alternate life, he gives her questions to answer in her other life and when she returns she will have to give him the correct answers. But what does this prove nothing really....eventually Sabine tires of it and she just wants someone to see her for who she is and believe she is telling the truth. There is a little romance in this story. Sabine has a boyfriend named Dex in one life and he appears nice and loves her but she doesn't seem too keen on him but she sticks with him. I personally don't like him for reasons I can't tell but as events begin to escalate and Sabine's friendship with Ethan in her other life blossoms, she realizes her choice isn't going to be that easy....someone will be hurt no matter what. 

As I began listening to this story, it made me think of books such as Lucid, Every Other Day and maybe Fair Coin. They all have to deal with living different lives and alternate realities. Reed does an awesome job of breathing life into this audio, it's so easy to identify with Sabine and feel her urgency and emotion. One thing I can say about this book is that it will push you and make you question things. Shirvington has crafted this world in a way that you will believe in Sabine. The pace of the audio is steady and fluid. Overall, this made me cry and I would recommend it to readers you like stories about parallel worlds or alternate realities. 

Waiting On Wednesday #23: Infinite by Jodi Meadows

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Infinite by Jodi Meadows
Expected Release: January 2014

Goodreads Synopsis

DESTRUCTION
The Year of Souls begins with an earthquake—an alarming rumble from deep within the earth—and it’s only the first of greater dangers to come. The Range caldera is preparing to erupt. Ana knows that as Soul Night approaches, everything near Heart will be at risk.


FLIGHT
Ana’s exile is frightening, but it may also be fortuitous, especially if she can convince her friends to flee Heart and Range with her. They’ll go north, seeking answers and allies to stop Janan’s ascension. And with any luck, the newsouls will be safe from harm’s reach.

CHOICE
The oldsouls might have forgotten the choice they made to give themselves limitless lifetimes, but Ana knows the true cost of reincarnation. What she doesn’t know is whether she’ll have the chance to finish this one sweet life with Sam, especially if she returns to Heart to stop Janan once and for all.
With gorgeous romance and thrilling action, the final book in the Incarnate trilogy offers a brilliant conclusion to the compelling questions of this fascinating world, where one new girl is the key to the lives of millions.

I haven't read Asunder yet, but this cover is sooooo pretty!
  What are you waiting for?

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Author: Rick Yancey
Narrators: Brandon Espinoza, Phoebe Strole
Title: The 5th Wave
Format: Unabridged Audio 
Length: 12 hrs, 41 mins
Publication: 2013
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Source: Publisher via Audiobookjukebox
~Website

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Cassie believes she may be the last human on earth. She doesn't let this deter her from searching for her little brother. It all began on a normal day, she had dreams of telling the boy Ben Parrish that she liked him some day but she discovers life can change in an instant. The lights go out and everything electronic stops working, people she once knew get taken in each wave until only a few survive. Cassie has to grow up fast in this kill or be killed world where the enemy could be anyone and trust is nonexistent. 

This story is told from multiple perspectives in male and female voices. Cassie is the primary view and it opens with her recollection of when it all began and how her life has changed. She's alone, having lost her family and her little brother is out there somewhere with strangers claiming to protect him. It's interesting to see a young woman become so afraid because of her uncertainty in humanity that she will essentially kill first and ask questions later. She's strong in the sense that her perseverance to push through her situation because she could've given up many times. I will say she has a smart mouth along with her snarky wit and it can weigh on your nerves some. Cassie does have a love interest other than Ben and his name is Evan Walker, the cutie with the chocolate eyes. He has a combination of strength and vulnerability that's nice to see in a male lead. My only issue is this boy falls fast and I think any romance is too soon for Cassie. What's great about this story is how Cassie and other characters struggle to hold onto their humanity and not become the monsters that are hunting them. 

The narration
I liked how Espinoza and Strole set the tone of the story; it was so easy to grasp the urgency, fear and emotional feel of the story through their voices. They each did a good job of defining who the characters were and setting the scene in a way that was clear and inviting, which translates well in this audio. I literally felt so anxious listening to this book and several times didn't want to get out the car. 

The writing
I think the short chapters helped keep the pace of the story moving along with action sequences. There were parts that dragged but the detail Yancey gives to this world is good. I'm curious though about what the aliens want and why are they killing so many people? Overall, this is a good story about survival that lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction will enjoy.

Reaper's Legacy by Tim Lebbon

Author: Tim Lebbon
Title: Reaper's Legacy
Series: Toxic City # 2
Publication: April 9, 2013
Publisher: PYR
Source: Publisher
~Website

Heroes and monsters clash with government forces in an apocalyptic London.

Two years after London is struck by a devastating terrorist attack, it is cut off from the world, protected by a large force of soldiers (known as Choppers), while those in the rest of Britain believe that their ex-capital is now a toxic, uninhabited wasteland.

Jack and his friends know that the truth is very different. The handful of survivors in London are developing strange, fantastic powers. Evolving. Meanwhile, the Choppers treat the ruined city as their own experimental playground.

Jack's own developing powers are startling and frightening, though he is determined to save his father, the brutal man with a horrific power who calls himself Reaper. Jack must also find their friend Lucy-Anne, who went north to find her brother.

What Lucy-Anne discovers is terrifying-people evolving into monstrous things and the knowledge that a nuclear bomb has been set to destroy what's left of London. And the clock is ticking.

Jack and Lucy-Anne are both changing now that they are in London in surprising ways. Jack's powers are blossoming and he has yet to reach his full potential, which is frightening and exciting. Lucy-Anne discovers a more horrifying realization about London on her journey North to find her brother that even her companion Rook is terrified to travel further. She has dreams of death, love and of a future so real closing her eyes becomes a task. Jack and Lucy-Anne are special and somehow hold the answer to stopping the madness that the Choppers have begun. 

Jack and Lucy-Anne find themselves pulled deeper into the mystery of London. Jack's mother and sister were taken by the Choppers in the first book and he is determined to get them back but needs Reaper's help. He knows Reaper is not the father that he once knew but he hopes that there is a small part of him that remembers his family. When it seems he's found a glimpse of his father, the walls are quickly put back in place. However, they have a common need that allows them to come to a shaky agreement to save those captured by the Choppers. On the other side, Lucy-Anne finds herself drawn to Rook, even though his ability to kill without remorse bothers her. She can't stop wanting to know more about him and learns he is more than what she believed. She keeps having these nightmares that she gradually discovers have a deeper and dangerous meaning but she has to find the last of her family first. 

Now, the story is told from the perspectives of Lucy-Anne, Jack, Nomad and maybe one other character. When I read the first book, Lucy-Anne was a hard character to connect with and it seemed like she was more of a mystery. It's good in this book that the author gives more insight into her mind and who she is, making it easier to feel her urgency and love for her brother, though I still thinks she's a little crazy. Her companion, Rook is an odd fellow but he has moments of emotional vulnerability which balances out his ability to appear unaffected by death. Jack has an innocence about him that's endearing and liked his perspective a little more, maybe because most of the action was happening around him. Lebbon has crafted a vivid world with quick paced writing loaded with tons of action and conflict. Overall, I liked the story and think anyone that enjoys books about people with superpowers will dig this one.