Desecration Excerpt + Giveaway

I came out of hibernation to share this excerpt with you.  Why?  I love the cover.  What can I say?  Some things never change...

Desecration: The Wizard Queen at Sixteen Synopsis:

In a hidden world of wizards where only men hold the power of magic, one girl arises with the power to change everything, if she isn’t killed first…

Adriana Victoriana Evangelista (Addie), daughter to the High Chancellor of the Wizard’s Council, has always been the perfect wizard girl. She never questions why men possess magical powers and women have no power at all, magical or otherwise. Male wizards blend into the modern human world, leading huge corporations while wizard women are sequestered away.  

On her sixteenth birthday, Addie discovers she possesses magic. Under wizard law, she is a desecration. An ancient prophecy surrounds the emergence of a girl magic-wielder, the wizard queen, who is destined to bring about the downfall of the wizard-kin.

Addie has long had a forbidden crush on a human boy who lives in the wizard stronghold, Rory Devlin. As she delves deeper into the dangerous mysteries surrounding her own destiny, she suspects Rory might be more than just human.

Addie’s fate sends her straight into the path of a powerful and evil sorcerer, but the worst danger of all may come from right inside her own home.

DESECRATION - Excerpt, Addie Discovers Her Magic…

The sound of footsteps outside sent my heart racing. If Izzy got caught without her cloak on school property, we’d both get detention for a week. And worse, my father would murder me.
“Your cloak!” I whispered. I stretched out my hand as if I could somehow grab Izzy’s cloak from several feet away.
In answer to my thoughts, Izzy’s discarded forest-green cloak flew across the room, coming into my open hand.
I blinked at my hand and the cloak I clutched in my fist. I stared as my knuckles went white and my outstretched arm began to tremble. A thunderous pulse echoed in my ears and my limbs and I realized it was the pounding of my heart.
Finally, I met Izzy’s shocked stare. We both gaped at each other for a moment. Then our gazes whipped back and forth between the corner where her cloak had been and my hand, where it currently was. And then to the door, which fortunately remained closed.
I realized I’d stopped breathing. Gasping for air, I dropped Izzy’s cloak like it was on fire.
“Addie,” Izzy gasped, then giggled nervously, “you just did magic.” She pointed a finger at me. “You just did MAGIC!”
“No. Shhhh! Don’t even say that!” I shook my head spastically. I clutched my head between my hands. “No! No! No!”
“Yes, yes, yes! You did!” she sang back.
“It didn’t happen. It couldn’t have.” I kept shaking my head so vehemently that I started to get woozy. “I’m a girl. That’s impossible!”
“It is impossible. But you did it anyway.” I couldn’t seem to stop shaking my head.
“Ha! Your brat of a brother would look like such a total idiot right now. Bet he couldn’t do what you just did. His magic hasn’t come that far yet.”
“No,” I said, still in major denial. I could hear my father’s voice ranting; a

woman wielding magic is a desecration!
“There’s some prophecy about this.” Izzy tapped her palm against her forehead several times. “Hugo mentioned it a while back. Shoot! I can’t remember.”
“I can’t be part of some prophecy. My father will kill me.”
“Yeah, he isn’t exactly the understanding type,” Izzy agreed as her brows drew together. “That’s why we can’t tell anyone about this. You’ll be a virtual prisoner of the council, and you’ll probably be retrained.”
At any second I was sure my brain would explode. In a single elapsed moment, I’d become the antithesis to every precept of wizard culture, a desecration of our beliefs. How had it happened? I couldn’t even begin to fathom what was happening to me.
“I mean it, Addie. We can’t tell anyone about this, well except for Hugo. Seriously, they’ll poke and prod at you and find some way to control you. I’m sure of it.”
I didn’t keep secrets from my parents. I always did what they expected of me. “Maybe my father wou-”
“Wouldn’t cart you off to be retrained?” Izzy cut me short. “I’m sorry, Addie, but don’t kid yourself. Your father is the head of the council, and he’s the most uncompromising of all when it comes to enforcing the wizard laws. The illustrious Manfred Evangelista will do whatever needs to be done to protect wizard-kin even if it means treating you like a lab rat or worse.” 

Hadley Holt Bio:

Hadley Holt, author of paranormal, and fantasy YA (Young Adult) has always loved to write. She also nurtures an incurable fascination with all things supernatural and fantastical. From a young age, she imagined stories about dragons, wizards, witches, ghosts, shape-shifters, vampires, and other magical creatures. As life often does, it blessed Hadley with family - a hunky husband and amazing children, and with family came a rewarding career. Hadley spent many years in the not-so-magical world of finance and mortgage banking, but the stories were always there in the back of her mind, demanding to be set free. 

Thanks to the housing market crash, Hadley finally realized her dreams. She now breathes life into her magical tales of reluctant young heroes finding their inner power to stand up against terrible creatures and even more terrible odds.

 Please visit me at HadleyHolt.com! 

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CLICKS by Amy Evans - excerpt and giveaway

My family and I just swam with dolphins at Discovery Cove, which is an amazing experience.  The animals are amazing and powerful.  So reading this excerpt for CLICKS really got my attention!  Hope you enjoy it.  And don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end!

Clicks – When you just know. 

Born and bred to win, Cami’s family expects her to join a secret society called The Guard, marry one of the two identical twin boys next door, and stay on Pinhold Island for the rest of her life. But she has other plans: work beach patrol, win the Surf Carnival and get a sponsor so that she can leave Pinhold to compete in international surf rescue competitions and see the world.   

Home to epic waves, black sand beaches, and the world-famous Surf Carnival, Pinhold Island is regularly voted the top surf spot in the country. People come from all over the world to ride the waves or just relax in the natural beauty and rejuvenating water.    While visitors are jealous of the few hundred people who get to live there, sixteen year old Cami feels stifled and trapped by her small community and her family's expectations.  Thanks to the intense link she shares with her twin brother Mica, she can't even be alone with her thoughts. As decedents of the ten families who originally settled on Pinhold, Cami and Mica are part of a new generation of extreme surf lifeguards who are expected to earn invitations into The Guard.  

But a seemingly small injury  knocks her out of the first event and turns her summer upside down.  It's suddenly impossible for Cami to resist the magnetic attraction to Blake, one of the twins next door; the one she's never been interested in. Just as the Surf Carnival competition starts to heat up, the best swimmers start to drown. Pulled  to the ocean floor, they're found barely  alive , stuck in unexplainable comas. When Mica goes down too, Cami can no longer wait for those in charge to figure out how to help him.  To save the lives of her brother and their friends, Cami must ignore what she sees and what she's told, and instead must learn to trust the clicks, her instincts, that help her find the truth in heart even when it goes against everything her brain thinks it knows.

Except:

You can do this, clicked Mica, straight into my brain. Slow and low.  He said the syllables silently, emphasizing all the proper points for inflection.  With this info from Mica, I realized that Stony hadn’t repeated it perfectly. Somehow Mica had known which ones to listen to. 

I repeated it silently; then spoke it as loudly as possible.  While my voice lacked volume, I filled it with as much energy as I could to capture the attention of the dolphins.   The raspy vibrations of my voice swirled through my bones, down into the rocks, and I imagined them entering the water so the dolphins would hear them below the surface. 
The reaction was instantaneous.  The dolphins repeated me sound for sound and were quickly on the move. 
“Again!” Stoney said, emphatically.  
So I did.  I repeated myself five more times until the dolphins were right in front of us in the bay. 
The mood around me had shifted to joy with the dolphins’ arrival. When I opened my eyes and saw them in front of me, I allowed myself a wide grin.  There, right in front of us, was a huge pod playing in the waves.  They flipped, jumped, and twisted in the air—showing off with glee.
“Well done,” Stony said, looking proud of is all. “Now, join our brothers and sisters in the sea, as is tradition, for a swim across the bay.”  
I took only a second to watch their silvery grey bodies moving through the water play before I dove off the rocks, getting in first. While everyone in The Guard would swim, only those of us pledging for the first time had anything to prove.  Mica counted the dolphins silently,  stopping when he reached fifty.  This pod is larger than we’ve seen in years! he clicked to me, sounding louder than usual in the water.   
The inky-black water surrounded me and I could barely see the many silvery bodies darting around.  They brushed against me, skin like neoprene, swimming in front, behind, and all around, churning the water so that they actually moved me along.   I stayed underwater as long as I could, so as not to give up my spot in the middle of the large group. When I finally surfaced, a dolphin with skin brighter than the others, stopped in the water, raised her head and stared. It felt like she recognized me.  
      She dove back under the water, and though I didn’t get quite enough air, I followed. Underwater she nudged me forward, and as I picked up speed she came alongside me. Her smooth movement created a slipstream, a pocket in the liquid that let me stay alongside her.  I focused on staying with her as we moved front of the crowd and lost track all the other dolphins and the people too. 
     Underwater, time passed differently, like I could see it and hear it without it effecting me.    I didn’t realized that I had forgotten to breathe ‘til I landed next to her on some jagged rocks gasping for air.  Once I drew in enough oxygen, I could see and hear and just fine.
But I couldn’t move my body at all, no matter how hard I tried.
     A sharp fragment of rock dug into that soft indented space behind my ear.  Blood—hers and mine— mixed in the water between us, and she looked so pale I got worried. She flopped her tail a few times, unable to get off of the rock. When I moaned in pain, she stopped doing that and looked right at me with one eye. In order to do that, she had to turn her head to the side. I blinked for a second, breaking the stare when I felt a pulse. I couldn’t hear or see but I knew was there.  It came through my skin, and into my bones, right to the spot that hurt the worst.  At once, the blood clotted and the pain stopped. But I was still stuck too far for anyone by the bonfire to see.  
The Blake sprang from the ocean like a dolphin with wings, or at least that’s what it looked like to me. I tried to smile but my lips wouldn’t move and since my eyes weren’t all the way open, he set up for mouth-to-mouth. If the situation were reversed, I would have too. 
     Gently he began to push on my chest, counting to thirty. Like the dolphin’s pulse, it went right through me to push the rock away. Once I could move again, I didn’t want to. Blake went forward with his plan, adjusting my throat carefully before touching his mouth on mine. At that moment, my attraction shifted from neutral to positive.      
A magnetic reversal had reset my internal compass on a molecular level and I needed to kiss him for my very existence to make sense.  I felt his shock, and then his interest as he shifted gears from rescue to romance, kissing me back until we heard Mica’s panicked yell and froze in place.  

Amy Evans Bio:

Amy Evans is a wife, mother, ocean lover and storyteller. She's created multi-platform mobile apps, social media games, and interactive story worlds for HIPnTASTY, a company she co-founded in 2001.  She loves dolphins, aliens and pugs, and sometimes writes for so long they all look like the same thing.  Clicks is her debut novel about instincts, a Surf Carnival, an endless summer and the hottest beach patrol on the California coast.   Clicks are truths you can feel, the sounds that the universe makes when it warns you that your world is about to change forever. If you listen to them, you get on the wave before it crests; control your path, surf into your destiny. If you ignore them, the wave crashes around you, and you try desperately not to drown.

Links:

Website: www.aammyyss.com

Author Facebook: www.facebook.com/amyevansclicks

Twitter: www.twitter.com/aammyyss

Novel Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17596261-clicks?ac=1

Author Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/aammyyss

Pinterest: www.pintrest.com/aammyyss

Tumblr: www.aammyyss.tumblr.com

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ONE by Leigh Ann Kopan - Excerpt & Giveaway

Guys - I am beyond excited to read this novel.  It sounds awesome and the cover makes me drool.  If that wasn't enough, once I read this excerpt, I knew I wanted to read it even more.  I hope you'll take the time to read it over, enter the contest, and let me know what you think!

ONE Synopsis:

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves.

ONE Excerpt:

“They don’t matter,” Elias says, staring at his hands, his fingers gripping each other. “I learned that a long time ago.”

Suddenly, I’m angry at his passivity, like I want to shake him by the shoulders and scream some sense into him. He’s a One. He’s a freak. He should be suffering just as much as I am.

“Yeah? Well, if your One doesn’t matter and they don’t matter, what does matter?” I clench and unclench my jaw over and over again, wavering between feeling bad about saying that to him and feeling powerful for finally unleashing this on anyone besides my poor parents.

He doesn’t respond right away. Oh, God, he must hate me. But then he speaks, and his voice is soft and patient. “There’s something beyond Superior and the Hub, Merrin. Someplace where no one expects anything from me. From people like us. Somewhere I could be myself, without the One and without the stupid school and basketball team. Those are just things I’m using to get by. Leni…she really fits in there at Nelson. But I don’t.”

“Somewhere you can be just like a Normal, you mean. But your One will never leave you.” The words come spilling out, like I couldn’t stop them if I tried. Still, I don’t look at him, focusing instead on twisting a long blade of grass into a knot over and over. “You can always leave Superior, leave other Supers, but you’ll always be half like them.” I can’t keep my voice low and measured like he can. “You’ll always be doing…whatever it is you can do…and wondering if there’s more. Don’t tell me you would ever give it up, that you’d give up practicing whatever your One is. We’re meant for more than Normal life.”

A smile teases at his lips, like he wants to tell me about his One but knows there’s no point. Like he doesn’t even care whether I know or not. And because of that, I really do want to know. Finally.

I can’t stop my legs from fidgeting. They bounce up and down, making my skirt swing against my calves. But I can’t make myself leave him. Even though he makes me feel like screaming at him and sobbing into his shoulder at the same time.

A few lone fireflies flit around a bit too early. The top three-quarters of the sky are only slightly dark. I reach out to swipe one from the air and watch as it staggers across the back of my hand, testing its legs after a stretch of flight. 

I wish walking felt more foreign to me than flying.

About Leigh Ann Kopans:

Raised on comic books and classic novels, Leigh Ann developed an early love of science fiction and literature. As an adult, she rediscovered her love for not only reading, but also writing the types of fiction that enchanted her as a teen. Her debut novel, ONE, is about a girl with only half a superpower, the boy who makes her fly, and her struggle to make herself whole.

Leigh Ann, her husband, and four children live in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not immersed in the world of fiction, you can find her obsessing over the latest superhero movie or using her kids as an excuse to go out for ice cream (again.)

Links:

Blog: http://leighannkopans.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.leighannkopans.com/

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeighAnnKopansbooks

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LeighAnnKopans

Novel Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17251203-one

Author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6439443.LeighAnn_Kopans

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ECHO by Alicia Wright Brewster (excerpt + giveaway)

The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone's been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara's death.

Purchase

Amazon - Barnes & Noble

About Alicia Wright Brewster

Alicia Wright Brewster is a mild-mannered lady of average height and above average paranormal obsession. By day, she works in an office. At night she is an author, an electronics junkie, and a secret superhero. (Please don't ask what her superpower is; that's not very polite.)

In her virtually non-existent free time, she loves to read, watch movies, and eat food. She is particularly fond of the food-eating and makes a point to perform this task at least three times per day, usually more.

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Make sure to check out the blog tour kicking off on Monday! You could win an awesome prize pack!

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SNEAK PEEK of ECHO...

A metal plate occupied the wall to the right of the door. Loken pressed his hand to it. The door slid away and disappeared into the left side of the doorway. Loken stepped through and down the stairs on the other side. His footsteps clanged against the metal steps as he descended.

Unlike in the overly bright training room on the other side of the building, dim lights filled this room with shadows. The team clustered at the bottom of the steps, blocking my view. As they shuffled slowly out of the way, I caught sight of what had stopped everyone else in their tracks.

A glass wall separated us from what looked like a large cell. The only entry point into the cell was another thick metal door with a security pad next to it. Behind the glass, three people stood as far away from one another as they could possibly get within the enclosed space: a hugely tall man, a woman with blond hair that hung past her waist, and a smaller man. All three were nude.

They looked human but . . . wrong somehow. Despite their lack of clothing, they made no effort to cover themselves. The larger man’s muscles bulged in odd places. While the woman wasn’t as massive, her body was more toned than any woman I’d ever met, more so than even Elder Ethereal.

From across the room, their black eyes cut through the darkness. A chill raced up and down my back like icy fingertips.

I stared at the smaller man. His eyes bore through me. I wondered if he saw me at all, or if he just happened to be looking where I was standing. At first glance, I’d thought him to be relatively slight. Although the other man dwarfed him, his thin arms were as tight as a predator’s, coiled to strike. The sharp planes of his face only emphasized the eerie black of his eyes, sunken into their sockets.

Loken’s voice startled me from the man’s hypnotic gaze. “In case you haven’t guessed it, these three are—”

“Mages,” I whispered.

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Kizmet by Beth Fred (adult fiction) - Excerpt

This is an adult novella.  I know -- I usually run a YA and MG-only blog, but Beth is a great person and I'm helping her share her news.

About Kismet

When twenty-four-year-old Tiffany escapes her sister Kammy's too wild Cancun bachelorette party, she finds herself in a bar with the unwanted attention of a gorgeous local named Luke.
Luke may be charming but Tiffany is leaving in two days and doesn't need any complications. But complications are exactly what she gets when the cops show up to raid Kammy's party. After Kammy is arrested, Tiffany agrees to have dinner with Luke, so he'll help her get Kammy out of jail. Kammy's arrest forces her to spend an extra day in Cancun, meaning she'll miss a crucial meeting, and as an accountant in tax season, she is already drowning in work. Not to mention, every second she spends with Luke makes it harder to leave. With Luke, Tiffany can forget about work.
But will the airport be their final goodbye?

Kismet Excerpt

As I approached my coveted bar stool, I got a lump in my throat. The guy sitting beside it was perfect—like male model perfect. Even sitting I could tell he was tall. He had caramel skin and curly black hair, and when he smiled at me, I noticed smoldering eyes and dimples to die for. 

I felt the color rushing back to my face. Get it together, Tiffany. You're here to work.

I gave a polite smile back—okay, it was probably more than that—and slid my laptop and its charger out of my purse. 

“Cómo estás?” he asked.

I knew like five words of Spanish. “Bien.” I ducked down to pull the power supply out and mumbled to myself, “My freaken sister is having an X-rated soiree in my room, because that's what a normal person does two weeks before they get married. Taxes are due in two weeks, and I have a hundred clients and a whole firm counting on me.” I plugged the charger into the outlet and came up with the computer end in my hand. He still looked at me. Wow. I had no idea he was paying attention. “Well, at least you don't speak English,” I mumbled. “Bien,” I said again louder.

He laughed.

The bartender looked at me. “En qué puedo servirle?”

“Something strong.” Yeah right. Like you can drink something strong. “Margarita.”

I opened my laptop and got back to reconciling files.  

“Señorita?” the bartender said, putting the drink down beside me.

“Thank you—uh—gracias.”

I took a big drink of the margarita. It tasted like acid, but I forced myself to swallow. It burned going down. So much for that idea.

It was quiet enough in the bar that I could think. Between thoughts of killing my sister, I managed to clear accounts or flag them for further review when I got to the office. But every time I looked up, it seemed like the guy beside me had his eyes fixed on me. Yeah, right. Guys like that don't check out girls like me.

Most of the times I caught his glance, I blushed, so I tried to avoid seeing him. I glued my eyes to the computer screen. I heard him say something in Spanish to the waiter, and two minutes later, the waiter set another drink next to me.

I looked at the waiter confused. 

“Del señor,” he said nodding his head toward the guy beside me.

Oh. So I had some Romeo beside me who liked to booze up girls who didn’t know Spanish. I shot him a glare, and before I could return my eyes to my computer, he gave me half a grin.

“Most girls say thank you, but it's okay. I don't speak English anyhow.”

And for a limited time, Kizmet also includes an excerpt from best selling author Lizzy Ford!

About the Author

Beth Fred lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their little ELF (Emily Lace Fred). She spends her time bringing her day dreams to life on paper, and blogging about bringing day dreams to life. You can find more about that at www.bethfred.com

Buy Links

Amazon: B&N: Smashwords

Cover Reveal + Excerpt ~ BROKEN by A.E. Rought

Today I am super-duper, uber excited to take part in the cover reveal for my Oasis sister's debut YA novel, BROKEN.  A.E. Rought has written what I'm sure will be an amazing story and now it has an amazing cover.  You ready for this?

     Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

     A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetary and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
     When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely…familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks.

     And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

Excerpt ~  Okay, so there are 11 of us participating in the cover reveal and posting the entire first chapter of Broken.  But to read it all, you have to visit all of our blogs.  I'm the second stop.  To read the first part of Chapter 1, head over to Trinity's blog.  Then come back here.

Echoes of us fill our seats now, Daniel’s long legs whole, not broken, and stretched across the polished stone. One of his long hands holds the pint, the other hand curls over my shoulder. My profile is clear, aimed at him, beaming love brighter than the moonlight. Curls muss his nearly black hair and cast his face into shadow. A chill October breeze stirs the trees. Branches clack above my head, brittle as old bones. Goosebumps coat my skin, my pulse jumps. When Daniel’s echo turns to me, his face is broken and bleeding, red shiny trails streaming from the crack in his skull, coursing into his hazel eyes.

My breath escapes in a rush. The same loss tears through me. And here I am again, living the hurt over and over, like constantly ripping off a Band-aid to feel the sting. 

Hurting is better than forgetting.

         Daniel wouldn’t want me living in this limbo. He would’ve screwed up his face into a comical mask long ago and shooed me away from here. I’m so weak without him. I struggle to keep my chin up,  and lose the sudden battle with my tears.

To continue reading, head to Katy's blog.

Don't forget, the novel releases January 2013.  Be sure to add it to your TBR list on Goodreads!

ALL THE BROKEN PIECES Cover Reveal + Excerpt

Instead of doing the debut YA book birthday post today, I'm helping Cindi Madsen get the word out about her forthcoming debut novel, ALL THE BROKEN PIECES.  Entangled is doing a major cover reveal today, so you're going to be seeing this baby all around the inter-webs.  The book will release in December.

What if your life wasn’t your own?

        Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

All the Broken Pieces, by Cindi Madsen is available for pre-order on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads! 

Be sure to connect with Cindi at:

http://www.facebook.com/CindiMadsenBooks

https://twitter.com/#!/search/cindi%20madsen

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1029223.Cindi_Madsen

http://cindimadsen.com/

Amazing Excerpt ~

Olivia reached up, feeling the tender spots on her head. Her fingers brushed across a row of—were those little ridges made of metal? 

“Careful. The staples are almost ready to come out, but it’s still going to be sore for a while.”

Staples?!Her stomach rolled. I have staples in my head? She lowered her now-shaking hand. “Can I get a mirror?”

Mom looked at Dad, then back at her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not until you’ve healed a little more.”

Mom patted Olivia’s leg. “You just relax. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

The two of them left the room, but when Mom swung the door closed, it didn’t latch. Olivia could hear their voices in the hall. 

“I still think we should…” She couldn’t make out the rest of Dad’s muffled words. “…know if I can do this.”

“…late for that,” Mom said. “We’d lose everything, including…” Her voice faded as they got farther away. “…have to move.”

Olivia could tell the conversation was tense, but the words were impossible to decipher now. Holding a hand in front of her face, she turned it back and forth. A plastic tube ran from her arm to a machine next to her bed. She peeked into her nightgown and stared in horror at the long red stripe running down her chest. 

Sick.

You’re alive. You shouldn’t be thinking about looks.

Lowering her hand, she scanned the room. I wonder how my face looks. From the way Dad stared at me, plus the fact Mom won’t let me see a mirror, it must be bad. 

Brains are more important than looks.

That’s what ugly people say.

Olivia put her hands on her head and squeezed. “Stop it,” she whispered to her arguing thoughts, hysteria bubbling up and squeezing the air from her lungs. What was happening to her? Why didn’t she recognize her parents or know where she was? Who she was? Tears ran warm trails down her cheeks. “Just make it all stop.”

Colors Like Memories (excerpt & contest!) by Meradith Houston

Please welcome Meradith Houston, author of COLORS LIKE MEMORIES, to the blog today.  She's a sweet author who's dropping in to share an excerpt from her novel.

But first, a word about the novel ~

Julia has a secret: she killed the guy she loved. It was an accident—sort of. 

Julia is a Sary, the soul of a child who died before taking her first breath. Without this 'breath of life' she and others like her must help those on the verge of suicide. It's a job Julia used to enjoy, until the accident that claimed her boyfriend’s life—an accident she knows was her fault. If living with the guilt weren't enough, she's now assigned to help a girl dealing with the loss of her mother, something Julia's not exactly the best role model for. If she can't figure out a way to help her, Julia's going to lose her position in the Sary, something she swore to her boyfriend would never happen.

The novel released on May 11th and with a stunning cover like that, it's bound to get some notice.  Want to read more?  I know you do. Ok, here's the excerpt:

The morning was cold, and I’d worked up a sweat racing back from the cemetery. Rubbing my hands against my bare arms, I cursed myself for forgetting my sweater again. Shoes would have been smart, too. I hadn’t been thinking about my wardrobe before I changed my form, and I was stuck in what I’d been wearing beforehand. Picking my way around snail shells and sharp stones I made it to the street.

A light in a window here and there was the only indication anyone was stirring in the pre-fab neighborhood Marcy lived in. Soon the men who commuted into the city would be leaving. I needed to be finished and gone before that happened. 

Every crack in the sidewalk was familiar as I raced toward Marcy’s, keeping to the shadows and out of the direct line of sight from windows. 

Marcy’s house was the only one on the block where the Christmas lights were already up. That was how she described it, at least. She didn’t take them down last year. Or the year before. Last Christmas, I’d helped her replace the busted bulbs so the strands would work over the holidays, but neither of us was up to the job of removing them. Neither was her father.

The front of her house looked just like the one across the street. The faded sign on the door, proclaiming a cheerful welcome to all who entered, was the only thing that distinguished it. Marcy left the sign up, even though it had obviously seen better days, because her mother put it there two days before she was killed.

You can get your copy on Amazon or through the Muse It Up website.

***

Meradeath also has a contest running for her blog tour—all commenters are entered into a drawing for two copies of my book, and one person will win a $25 giftcard to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. There are more details on my home blog, if you want to check it out!

A bit about Meradeth Houston:

Meradeth’s never been a big fan of talking about herself, but if you really want to know, here are some random tidbits about her:

She’s a Northern California girl. This generally means she talks too fast and use "like" a lot.

When she’s not writing, she’s sequencing dead people’s DNA. For fun!

She’s been writing since she was 11 years old. It's her hobby, her passion, and she’s so happy to get to share her work!

If she could have a super-power, it would totally be flying. Which is a little strange, because she’s terrified of heights.

And for more ways to stalk, er, keep with with Meradith, check out these links:

www.MeradethHouston.com

meradethhouston.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/#!/MeradethHouston

www.goodreads.com/book/show/13030422-colors-like-memories

http://www.facebook.com/ColorsLikeMemories

http://pinterest.com/merbear95695/

COVER & EXCERPT - Like Clockwork by Elle Strauss

Like Clockwork, a companion novel to the Clockwise series, is here!!

Adeline doesn't feel she belongs in her own time, but can bad boys from the past be trusted?

 Adeline Savoy had hoped that the move west from Cambridge to Hollywood with her single dad would mean they’d finally bond like a real family, but all she got was a father too busy with his new female friends and his passion for acting to really see her.

 Instead she finds herself getting attached to Faye, the divorcee hair dresser she befriends when she travels back in time to 1955. Plus Faye has a hottie, James Dean-esque, bad-boy brother who has Adeline’s heart all aflutter. But bad boys from the past can be dangerous. Is it possible that Adeline really does belong in her own time and that maybe the right boy lives as close as next door?

LIKE CLOCKWORK is available now at Amazon and Smashwords and soon for B&N, ibooks and other e-book retailers.

 Read on to sample the first chapter:

Chapter One

Adeline Savoy

My dad still thought I was ten. That was how old I was when my mother died, and how old I was when my father crawled into his “cave,” also known as his office on the 26th floor of the John Hancock tower. Six years later, like a bear coming out of hibernation, Dad decided his days of hiding behind a desk were over. I thought he was going through a mid-life crisis, which was why we now lived in Hollywood instead of Cambridge. And why when I spotted his reflection in a mirror at the cosmetic counter in the Shop & Save store, I almost dropped the Scarlet Passion lipstick tester I'd just smeared on my lips.

Even though I was sixteen, I wasn't allowed to wear make-up. True. With my left hand I used a tissue to wipe the evidence off my mouth, all the while watching my dad’s familiar profile move in and out of range in the mirror.

He was laughing. I crouched down and turned, my vision just missing the counter top, and watched. His hair had grown out since the “decision.” He used to always keep it so short, that I didn’t even know it was wavy before, and the lines on his face never used to turn upward in a smile.

I had to see who was causing this cosmic reaction in my father. The clerk who sold cheap jewelry, a pretty-in-a-fake way brunette, tilted her head and giggled back.

My jaw dropped and something really strange started happening in my stomach. I felt a little sick because I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. My dad was flirting!

Who was this man dressed in khakis, flip-flops and an un-tucked pseudo Hawaiian shirt? My real dad only wore pinstriped suits with starchy white shirts and a blue tie. Always. Even to bed, I was certain.

“Miss? Are you all right?” The cosmetic clerk was armed with a spray nozzle cleaner in one hand and a paper towel in the other.

I mimed as best I could, “ssh”, but apparently dad was the only one with acting skills in my family, since she wouldn’t leave me alone.

“Miss? You don’t look too good. Should I call for medical?”

The fake pretty lady stopped chatting when she heard her colleague talking so loudly. Obviously, that meant my dad’s little flirtation episode was over. And of course, my blonde ponytail was a giveaway. 

“Adeline?” he said.

“Dad!” I jumped up, feigning surprise.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

What are you doing here? I thought. “Um nothing, just looking. Thought I might buy some gum.”

Dad glanced back at the fake and I did a quick switcheroo, replacing the tester and grabbing a sealed golden tube. It tucked nicely in my fist as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Adeline, come here,” Dad said. “I want you to meet someone.”

My legs moved toward dad and the fake without my permission.

“Adeline, this is my friend from acting class, Spring. Spring, this is my daughter, Adeline.”

Spring extended her hand. Unfortunately, the contraband lipstick was in my right hand. I wasn’t a magician. Dad would notice if I tried to switch. I opted for the awkward offering of my left hand.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Spring gushed.

“Same,” I said, not meaning it at all. “Not that I don’t want to stay and chat,” I added quickly, before Dad could draw us into more forced intimacies, “but I’ve got to go.”

“I’ll walk with you,” Dad said. But he wasn’t looking at me; he was smiling at the fake.

“It’s okay, Dad. I’ll meet you at home.” I strutted across the floor to the cashier. He glanced back at me as I stood in line at the register. I waved the pack of gum in the air. I paid for it and the lipstick while Dad and the fake went back to making googly eyes.

I snapped the gum in my mouth while caressing the lipstick tube in my hand. It was encased in a plastic protective seal, a perforated strip running the length of it like a zipper. My thumb picked at the rim. All I had to do was rip it open and it would no longer be returnable.

But I really should return it. I’d promised myself I’d give up the greasy lip habit when we moved. It was a chance to start over, do everything new, and be a proper daughter with a proper father.

Hrumph. Like that was turning out. Dad wasn't exactly holding up his end of the bargain.

My breaths came out short and rapid, like a panting dog. I didn’t realize how fast I’d been walking. I’d hardly taken in the tall palm trees that lined the road or the sweet smell of tropical flowers I didn’t know the names of.

No signs of autumn in sight. In Cambridge the leaves would be showing signs of turning color, bright reds and yellows. A little twist in my stomach. I was homesick.

And angry.

He was supposed to change, but not like that. He was supposed to notice me, spend time with me, not some flake called Spring. What kind of name was that anyway? It sounded like a made up actress name. Her last name was probably Storm or Wind. My thumb picked the plastic a bit more.

“Hi, there.”

I turned my head. Some guy riding a pink bike with a sparkly white banana seat and matching tassels that hung off tall, wide handle bars slowed down to keep pace with me.

“Hi,” he said again. This time there was no mistaking he was talking to me.

“Hi?” I said, not slowing down at all to do so. I may be entering my junior year, but I still didn’t talk to strangers. Janice, my babysitter/pseudo mom in Cambridge, had drilled that lesson into me good.

“My name's Marco. I live next door to you.”

Okay. I slowed a little. “Why are you riding a girl’s bike?” Did he steal it? Why didn’t he care about how stupid it made him look?

“It’s my sister’s. I sold mine to buy something else, but riding this is better than walking.”

“I’m walking and you’re not making any better time than me.” I was annoyed. Why didn’t he just keep going? I preferred to sulk alone.

“You’re new, so I thought with school starting tomorrow, you’d like someone to ride the bus with.”

Good point. Who knew what kinds of Hollywood weirdos would be on the bus? I looked Marco up and down. He was average height, shaggy hair, and wore a graphic t-shirt and surfer shorts with fat, loosely tied skate shoes on his feet. No socks. He had nice, tanned skin and warm brown eyes that squinted to almost close when he smiled. He wasn’t hard to look at.

And he looked trustworthy enough, I guessed. Plus, he was right. I didn’t really want to go to Hollywood High alone.

I stopped and turned to him. “I’m Adeline Savoy.” I wiped the sweat on my right hand off on my skirt—sky blue, slightly flared and to my knees—and offered it wanting to start my new friendship off on the right foot.

“Cool,” Marco said as we shook. “You like to make things official. I like that.”

The sun must’ve glinted off the gold tube in my other hand because Marco nodded toward it. “What’ya got there?”

“Oh, it’s just lipstick. I bought it, but now I’m not sure. I might take it back.”

“I don’t know why girls wear that vile stuff,” he said. I was surprised by the strength of his statement.

“It makes us feel good. Pretty. What’s wrong with that?”

“For one thing, you’re already pretty without it.”

He thought I was pretty?

“Besides,” he continued, “it’s made out of horse urine.”

“It is not! That’s so gross.”

“It is. That’s why it has that sticky consistency. Have you ever seen dried urine around a toilet?”

“You’re disgusting! How would you know about lipstick, anyway?”

“I have three sisters, though one is only six years old and hasn’t discovered the evils of make-up and this culture’s drive to sexualize young girls. It’s too late for my older sisters, but you can still be saved.”

Who was this guy? And how did he get off talking to me like that? He didn’t even know me. I felt my lips settle into a tight line and my pace picked up.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

How long was he going to walk with me? “Where did you say you lived?”

“Right next door to you.”

“Right next door?” This annoying person, who happened to be my only friend, lived right next door?

“Yeah, the two storey. My bedroom window faces yours.”

“You see in my window!”

“No. I don’t…” His face flushed red.

“You do, you do look in. You peeping Tom!”

“Adeline, I didn’t see anything. I just heard your music.”

“Huh?” I stopped and spun to face him.

A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “And your singing.”

“What?” I was mortified. He probably heard me singing along to  Feist, or even worse, he saw me doing my Michael Jackson impersonation. I bet he saw me doing the Thriller dance the other night. Ugh!

“Everyone can hear you. You have your window open.”

“You know what? Don’t talk to me.”

Marco seemed truly taken aback, and yet he didn’t get the hint. Not even one as direct as that. He was not only a peeper, but he was dense, too.

“I live in a house full of women. Three sisters and a mother. I get what’s going on here. It’s PMS, isn’t it?”

Was he kidding me? As if I would talk about something like that with him! I stopped and stared hard into his eyes. I produced my new tube of lipstick and slowly peeled the perforated strip, letting the plastic wrapper drop to the ground. I dramatically popped off the lid and twisted the base until the bright red dried horse urine was in full view.

Then I put it on my lips, slowly, purposefully, first the top and then the bottom, smacking them in Marco’s direction when I was done.

Take that, Mr. I Know Women.

Marco bent down, picked up the plastic wrapper and pushed it in his pocket. He straddled the bike and pushed off, turning back long enough to say, “I’ll pick you up at 8:10 tomorrow morning for school.”

Argh.