Author spotlight: Introducing Michelle Madow

Another month is now beginning and it is time for a new Author spotlight month! In the month of December we are very proud to introduce to you MICHELLE MADOW author of The Transcend Saga! 

This will be such a fun month and you can look forward to and author interview, guest posts book excerpts and a giveaway! So be sure to not miss any posts in The December author spotlight!

So lets start by introduce this awesome author!

Michelle Madow was inspired to write Remembrance after seeing Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video while a junior at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The song and video gave her the story idea about a high school girl reincarnated from Regency Era, England. She handed in the first chapter as a homework assignment for class, and when her teacher and fellow classmates wanted her to continue writing, she decided to go for it. By the end of the school year, her first novel was completed! Along with the Transcend Time Saga, Michelle Madow has written two other young adult novels, both which will be developed into series’.  Michelle Madow graduated from the Park School of Baltimore in 2005, where she always took two English classes each semester. She graduated from Rollins College in 2010, cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. At Rollins she was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and a member of the International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta. She received the Charles Hyde Pratt Award for Excellence in Creative Writing in 2010. Michelle lives in Florida, where she is hard at work writing more novels for young adults.

For more information on Michelle and her books, please visit:

Twitter:  @michellemadow

Blog of Michelle Madow

Official website

Facebook personal

Facebook fanpage

Goodreads

TIMELESS, the third and final part of the Transcend Time Saga by Michelle Madow, released on November 20, 2012. The Transcend Time Saga is about a high school student named Lizzie who has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England, but doesn’t realize it until she meets her soul mate from the past and he triggers her memories to gradually return. The series began with REMEMBRANCE (published July 25, 2011), and continued with the short story VENGEANCE (published December 8, 2011). The series has sold a significant number of copies so far, and has received much praise from reviewers.

Quotes from Reviewers about TIMELESS

"The combination of time travel, magic, and love makes Timeless an unforgettable page turner!"-For Those About to Read

"Timeless had great twists, particularly towards the end. For something inspired by a Taylor Swift song, Michelle has come up with a great series!"-Addiction to Words Reviews

"Just when I think I know what to expect, Michelle throws me a curveball! It was spectacular. And marvelous. And a little bit daring, which is what makes Timeless stand out so much!"

-Sparkles and Lightning

Purchase links:
REMEBRANCE: Amazon | B&N | book depository | ibookstore | kobo
VENGENCE:      Amazon | B&N | book depository | ibookstore | kobo
TIMELESS:         Amazon | B&N | book depository | ibookstore | kobo

Read More

Fantastic Friday! From book to movie

Since it´s Friday and the weekend is just around the corner I wanted to share something awesome with you guys! Most of you have probably already watched it but for those of you who has not. Sit back, relax and enjoy....!

I give you the trailer to Beautiful Creatures!

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.

We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.

At least, that's what I thought.

Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.

There was a curse.

There was a girl.

And in the end, there was a grave. 

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.  //Ad on goodreads//

Read More

Cover reveal! Fanged Princess by Elizabeth Wheatley

We are so excited to present the cover of a new novel by Elizabeth Wheatley!

Release date for Fanged Princess is January 22, 2013

I will not let my brother suffer the same loss…
 Hadassah’s father, the Vampire King, punished her for her choice to love a human. Now her brother, the only person in the world who still matters to her, has fallen for a human girl. Determined to keep the girl safe, the three of them flee from their home in New England and find themselves cornered with their father’s minions closing in. If they want to escape, their only hope may be to join forces with the mortal enemies of their kind… Be ensnared in this dark tale of enduring love, loyalty, and revenge from teenage author, Elisabeth Wheatley. 

Watch Trailer

Related links:
The blog of Elizabeth Wheatley
Elizabeth on Facebook
Elizabeth on goodreads
Elizabeth on Twitter

Fanged Princess Goodreads Page

Read More

Paranormal Thursday with Kristen Selleck

Paranormal Thursday is a new feature @Rather barefoot than bookless

In this feature you  highlight an author and a book that you really enjoy reading from in the paranormal genre. There are so many great books out there and so many awesome authors. So this is a chance for us all to recommend some books and authors to each other that we really like. 

I hope you will like this feature and if you like to join in with a recommendation. Leave a comment and/or the url to your own blog post.

                                                                     

************

If you like ghost stories and secret societies then you should read the books by Kristen Selleck! Her series has a little bit of everything. Ghosts, insanity, secret societies, love, danger and really creepy people. Her writing compels you to keep reading and turn page after page.
Read more about Kristen Selleck on goodreads and on kristenselleck.webs.com

Asylum by Kristen Selleck

Across the country, hidden in plain sight, are the forgotten remains of a once-great psychiatric movement: the asylum. These crumbling castles all share a common appearance and history. They inspire curiosity, fear, and even a few urban legends.
Chloe Adams came to Birch Harbor, a small college town in the U.P., to escape the stigma of mental illness. Her new roommate Sam Klingeman, came to drink her weight in vodka and find a hot guy with a trust fund. Between Chloe's developing relationship with campus hockey hero and floor RA, Seth Maird, trying to be the voice of moderation for Sam, and her new position as teacher's assistant for the eccentric Dr. Willard, she's stayed busy enough to keep the past firmly behind her.
But the voices return...and this time, she's not the only one that can hear them.
The beautiful old dormitory she lives in is hiding a secret. A secret that will uncover a dark plot 200 years in the making. Will Chloe be able to hold onto the new life she's worked so hard to build, will she relapse into a world of her own making, or will she, perhaps, fulfill the legacy she was born into? //Ad on goodreads//

The complete series:

Asylum
Abrahams men
The Kirkbride plan (coming june 2013)

Read More

Waiting on Wednesday: The Kirkbride plan

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme and is hosted by Jill @  breaking the spine.

  ******

This week I´m waiting for the third book in the Birch Harbor series by Kristen Selleck!
This is such a great ghost story with love, insanity and secret societies!
read more about the birch harbor series on goodreads

Release date june 2013

Read More

Book review: The last alignment by Nathaniel Stewart

Author: Nathaniel Stewart
Title: The last alignment
Series: Book 1
Genre: Young adult, paranormal
My copy: Epub received for review by author
Purchase: AMAZON |
My rating: 4 stars

"He had been dead. Really dead. Now he wasn’t. But if he had died and were dead, would he have been aware of the actual fact that he was deceased? He was here now, so did that mean that all this time that he thought he was gone he really wasn’t? But then what had happened to him if he didn’t die? It had felt so real…more permanent than all the other times…"
Hektor has been dead for fourteen years, and he believed that all the chaos that existed had died with him. And now, he has returned, and while he doesn’t know how he has found his way back to the land of the living, he recognizes that the situation is far more dangerous and hostile than it was before. Things have not only changed, but they have moved forward so rapidly that on top of everything else, he now has to deal with five teenagers and prepare them to do what those before them could not. But Awbrey, Hudson, Androse, Zander, and Natalye have a ways to go before they can come together and do anything, a daunting detail considering that Hektor doesn't know how far the enemy has gotten in his absence.

My thoughts:

This book was sooo good! I loved it. It was so much better than I thought it would be after I´ve read the blurb. Don´t let it fool you because it was so much better then suggested!  It was written in third person and from several people´s point of view you but it did not get confusing because Stewart was very clear with who´s point of view you read from. The story had a really good pace with a lot of intrigues that kept me interested through out the book.

I am really intrigued about this enemy they have to someday face. What is he? And what is hector. Because neither of them is what I would consider a who. I also really liked that the five teenagers was so different from each other. They are completely different individuals and because of this they had a lot to deal with within their group. I would say that a lot of this book was about overcoming their differences so they could come together and work as a team. I also liked that there were three generations represented in this book. They all had some part to play in this story that added to new layers and depth to the already very interesting story.

I am so hooked on this series and I really want to know more about their abilities and the enemy and Hector and their destiny. What is their fight really about and how will they win it? So many questions that are flying around in my head that demands answers, so I am so excited  for the next book in this series. You should really take some time to read this one. It will be worth it, I promise!

Read More

Teaser Tuesday: Abrahams men

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two "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!

*******************************************

So, I am currently reading the second book In the awesome Brich Harbor series by Kristen Selleck

College sophomore Chloe Adams returns to Birch Harbor determined to find the remnants of the secret society known as Abraham's Men.
Yet, the only clues she has are the words 'find Ian Rose' and a strange coded journal that once belonged to her father.
No longer able to hear the voices that have plagued her for most of her life, and finally having the loving home she has always dreamed of, Chloe struggles to define what she wants--
Until fate and her mentor conspire to offer her the chance to discover the truth.
Unfortunately, the truth might kill her.

TEASER

"Stop laughing at me! This is serious! How awful would it be to finally decide to do it, and Sam walks out to get a nightcap or something? Can you imagine? She´d probably start shouting advice!"

Seth whined deep in the pillow and cam up gasping for air.

"You...are....killing...me!" He choked out.

Read More

Contemporary Romance Monday with Jolene Perry

In this feature we will highlight an author and a book that we really enjoy reading from in the contemporary romance genre. There are so many great books out there and so many awesome authors. So this is a chance for us to recommend some books and authors that we or one of us really like. 

I hope you will like this feature and if you like to join in with a recommendation. Leave a comment and/or the url to your own blog post. 

******************

This week I want to highlight Jolene Perry. She writes beautifully, and she has such depth in her stories which I really like. She is really good in describing both emotions and the scenery in her books. She pulls you in with her words and you just have to keep reading and get to know these amazing characters and their stories. And I read Night Sky by her a while ago and wanted to share it with you. It is a really great read! 
Read more about Jolene Perry on goodreads and on jolenebperry.com

NIGHT SKY BY JOLENE PERRY

Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear.
After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.
As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.
But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.                                           //Ad on goodreads//

Read More

Author spotlight: Excerpt from Word and deed by Susannah Noel

Welcome to the last week of this month´s Author spotlight with Susannah Noel. 

Susannah wanted to share with you an excerpt from her latest book word and deed.

Excerpt from Word and Deed book 2 in the wordless chronicles

Riana Cole had infiltrated a Union stronghold before, but she’d forgotten how nerve-wracking it could be.

It had been almost three months since she’d done anything so risky.

Her heart raced as she entered through the double glass doors into the spacious lobby of the Exhibition—as sleek and sanitized as all Union buildings with the requisite decorative waterfall cascading down one wall.

Connor walked in front of her, looking masculine, attractive, and rather un-Connor-like in the charcoal gray uniform of a Union guard and not wearing his glasses.

Without hesitation, he strode toward the welcome desk and barked out that he’d been ordered to escort a Reader to the Book Room.

He made sure to sound less than enthusiastic about his task.

Riana stood quietly behind him, relieved when the bored attendant behind the desk glanced at the ID Connor flashed and gestured toward the metal detectors all visitors had to walk through.

The official name of the museum was the National Exhibition of Union History, but everyone just called it the Exhibition. It housed art and artifacts from the past, all selected and presented in a way to support Union values rather than to encourage appreciation of the objects in their own right.

The Exhibition was almost always empty, and Union officials weren’t displeased with that fact.

There were two armed guards near the metal detector—a normal display of power for any Union building.

Riana kept her eyes down, trying to remember how she would have acted in this situation when she’d actually been a Reader.

Just three months ago. She’d lived a different life.

“What’s your business?” one of the guards asked Connor as they approached.

“Escorting her,” Connor replied gruffly, giving Riana a disparaging look. “She’s a Reader and needs to look at an old book. Sent by the supervisor.”

The guard was not particularly interested in a mission so irrelevant. He waved them through the metal detector without further questioning.

Connor stepped back to let Riana go through first. When she hesitated, he put his hand on her back to guide her in.

It wasn’t a gentle nudge – it was closer to a shove. Even though she knew Connor was playing a part, she didn’t have to fake a scowl of annoyance over her shoulder.

The second guard snickered as they walked through the security station and into the Great Hall of the Exhibition.

Connor slanted her an apologetic look as they entered the huge airy room, which was lined with gleaming glass cases of artifacts and supported by stainless steel beams.

The hall was silent as the grave.

Since there was no one around, Riana risked a tiny smile which was answered by Connor’s blue eyes.

Both of them knew where the Book Room was located, so they made their way to the public elevator and ascended to the fourth and highest level of the building.

They walked through an empty hallway to the back corner of the floor where the Book Room—more like a Book Closet—was located.

Books, of course, would not get pride of place in today’s Union. They were only kept here at all as archaic reminders of a past they’d long since left behind. If they’d pressed the large red button on the wall, a disembodied voice would provide a slanted history of books, emphasizing how much trouble they had led to in times gone by.

They didn’t press the button.

Instead, Connor quietly shut the door so no random passerby could see what they were doing.

After finding no security camera in the room, they both started scanning the shelves to locate the particular book they’d come here to read.

“What a waste,” Riana murmured, running her hand over the spine of a beautiful leather-bound collection of early post-Cataclysmic poetry. “All these amazing books that no one bothers to even look at anymore.”

“Try not to think about it.” Connor smiled at her, causing lines around his eyes to crinkle. He was wearing contact lenses, since Union guards didn’t wear glasses. He obviously didn’t like them, since he kept blinking a lot more than normal.

Riana wasn’t sure she liked them either. He didn’t really look like her old friend of so many years.

“Do you know what the book looks like? What size and binding?” he asked.

“It was slim and leather bound. Maybe a dark red or brown. I can’t remember it very well.”

She and Connor had been working on their translation project for the last three months. They’d made some significant progress in translating the coded version of the Old Language found in the mysterious book so many people had risked so much for. But they still weren’t very far along.

Yesterday, they'd had a lucky break, finding that the book’s first section appeared to quote briefly from a philosophical text they knew was available in full in the traditional Old Language they both could read.

Riana’s grandfather, Marshall Cole, had owned a copy. About half of his library had ended up in the Exhibition when the Union had confiscated his belongings at his death.

If they could look at that book and get a copy of the quoted passage written in the Old Language, then the comparison would greatly help their translation of the coded language.

Riana felt familiar shivers of excitement at the presence of all these books, some of which used to be her grandfather’s. The feeling was old-fashioned and sentimental in a culture like theirs in which reading was obsolete—replaced by voice recordings, images, and symbols—and in which excess emotion was frowned upon.

Riana didn’t care what the rest of the world did. She loved books, and she’d loved her grandfather.

 “Here it is,” Connor said after searching for about five minutes. He pulled a tall, thin volume off the top shelf. She walked over and peered at the pages as he flipped them.

It took them a few minutes to find the page with the quotation they needed and then another few minutes as Connor meticulously copied out the words.

Soon, however, he replaced the book on its shelf, and Riana felt a surge of excitement. Their mission hadn’t been particularly dangerous—certainly not as dangerous as many of the Front’s normal activities. But there had been some risk involved, and now they had nearly accomplished it.

“Oh look,” she said suddenly, catching a glimpse of a familiar book on a lower shelf. “This one was my grandfather’s too. I loved this book.”

She leaned over and pulled out the vinyl-bound storybook, scanning through the illustrated pages of the simple fables. “He used to read the stories to us at bedtime. My favorite was about a frog who lived under a lily pad.”

Connor smiled—warm, almost tender—and for a moment they shared a moment of perfect understanding and appreciation.

Then he said, “We need to go.”

“Right.” She replaced the book and fell in step with him as they left the Book Room.

They didn’t speak as they descended on the elevator, and they’d almost reached the lobby when they both jerked to a stop at the sudden blaring of an alarm.

She should have known this trip was going too smoothly.

They’d been caught.

Read More

Cyber Monday on Amazon, get a free e-copy of Dark seeker

It is cyber Monday on Amazon today and to celebrate Taryn Browning´s new book Dark return (seeker #2) that will be released on November 30th she is giving away free e-copies of Dark seeker (Seeker #1) for three days starting today!

Download your FREE copy of Dark seeker on Amazon; Nov 26th through the 28th, before the release of the sequel, Dark return. Read my review of Dark seeker.

Leave your name and e-mail in the comments section of Taryn Browning´s blog saying that you downloaded Dark seeker and tweeted or posted about the event on facebook, for a chance to win a SIGNED copy of Dark Beauty.

She's the Seeker. He's the hunted. What's at stake could kill them both...
For 17-year-old Seeker, Janie Grey, ridding the Baltimore streets of the undead is an inherited duty passed down from her Cherokee ancestors. Seeker Training Lesson #1: Never trust the undead. After her father’s tragic death, Janie creates her own life lesson: Love isn’t worth the risk. Both lessons are easy to follow until she encounters the flawed Kai Sterdam. At first, she believes he is the hybrid she is trained to hunt. But, when he has human traits, she determines she doesn’t know what he is. As Janie’s intrigue over who Kai is pushes her deeper into his mysterious past, she discovers a shocking truth that is even more harrowing than the evil they are up against. It’s a secret Kai wants to keep hidden, especially from Janie.                                             Download free on AMAZON

Read More

IMM & STS!

IMM is about sharing
the books you found
during the week
and is hosted by
The Story Siren

Stacking The Shelves is all
about sharing the books you
are adding to your shelves.
Hosted by Tynga´s Reviews

Since both STS and IMM is about the same thing  they get to be in the same post. 

Received for Review

DERAILED BY ALYSSA ROSE IVY

TEMPEST BY JENNA-LYNNE DUNCAN
FROM THE ASHES BY SIMONE SNAITH
THE AWAKENING OF LEEOWYN BLAKE BY MARY PARKER

Freebies on Amazon

 

ETERNAL VOWS BY CHRISSY PEEBLES

SECRETS BY LIZ SCHULTE

CHRISTMAS IN COLD CREEK BY RAEANNE THAYNE

Purchased

   FLIGHT BY ALYSSA ROSE IVY

AVENGING ANGEL BY TARA JANZEN

Read More

Historical Romance Saturday with Susan Wiggs

This is a new feature @ rather bare foot than bookless

In this feature we will highlight an Author and a book in the historical romance genre that we or one of us really like. But it is mostly about the book. It sort of like a recommendation of a really great read.

This feature is a weekly feature and will be posted every Saturday. If you want to join you are more than welcome to either you just leave a comment with a book you highly recommend or if you want to join with your own post. But if you do don´t forget to leave a comment with your url and to link back to us in your post so others can join in on the fun. You are welcome to use our button or use your own.  

*****************
I recently found out that Susan Wiggs also writes historical fiction and not only contemporary.
I love that because I love her contemporary romance´s. So I´m thinking that she should do well with historical romance as well. I hope so I have not read the one I bought yet but I wanted to share it with you anyway. Wiggs has a really warm way of telling stories. They are mostly very cozy so I hope this one is  as well. You can read more about Susan Wiggs at goodreads and on susanwiggs.com

Lord of the night by Susan Wiggs

Sandro Cavalli, Lord of the Night, is legendary for bringing criminals to justice. But in the city's shadowy alleyways, a new, deadly plot is afoot—a sinister threat that even Sandro needs help to uncover. 

He enlists the aid of an alluring, sensuous beauty, Laura Bandello. But Laura's innocent loveliness may hide a dark secret, and Sandro vows to keep his distance. Yet the deeper he delves into the underworld, the harder he falls for Laura. Pursued by unspeakable danger, Sandro risks his honor, his reputation, and even his heart—all for the love of a mysterious beauty he can't quite trust.

//Ad on Goodreads//

Read More

Saturday Snapshot: Swedish House Mafia Concert

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce @ AT Home With Books.

Share your photos with us! They can be old or new but should be taken by you!

So, yesterday I went to the Swedish House Mafia concert and thought I would share a picture and a little video with you guys. The arena filled up with 38000 people so it was amazing!  I absolutely love going to big House concerts. To listen to great music and dance all night long. We went up to the seating places after a while since it was so crouded on the floor so I was able to record a video =)

 

 

 

Read More