Free Book News

I love free books, who doesn't? I'm toying with the idea of starting an occasional feature on the blog where I post several books currently available for free. Here are a few that I've found.



A dark, epic fantasy adventure. A story of good versus evil. Love versus hate. And vengeance versus forgiveness.

The Seer- Elian is the seer of his generation. He has seen what is coming but some things cannot be seen before they happen. 

The Puppeteer- Enya is the fire wielder of her generation. She is the daughter of the King of Cinereal. The King does not allow anyone with a power to rival his own, to survive. He has plans to take over the nine lands beyond the Gate.

The Gatekeeper- Grief. Loneliness. So much death. Enya knows she has to find a way to stop the Puppeteer and keep him from hurting anyone else she loves. But the Puppeteer has plans and her survival is not part of that plan.

The Fire Wielder- If the magic of the Fire Wielder is tainted, she will turn into something much worse than her father. Grief, pain, and a broken heart have changed Enya. Can she hold onto her goodness and finally defeat the Puppeteer once and for all?

Check it out on Amazon

Lose yourself in a paranormal series that’s binge worthy!  As a half shapeshifter and half fairy, Jade's quest to find answers and defeat evil leads her down a dangerous path full of magic and enemies that can ultimately destroy her and those she loves. 

An evil force is kidnapping supernatural teens in NYC. Jade and other shapeshifters unite to defeat this new threat. Time is running out. 

Jade must travel to learn about her past and to find answers she is searching for. Jade’s family grows as she discovers she has more than her adoptive family to love and protect.

Bex, an evil fairy queen, is back and she’s more evil than ever with a new member of her team…someone who was once thought to be dead.

Seven, Jade’s sexy shapeshifter boyfriend who is also an actor, works together with Jade as they confront danger and evil that may unite them... or tear them apart.

Come along on this exciting YA paranormal romance journey that will keep you hooked, page after page.

Check it out on Amazon

(Authors, if you're book is ever about to go free for a promotion or what have you, feel free to drop me a line).





Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Wildcard ARC Giveaway! (US only)

At Book Expo and Book Con I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Marie Lu's upcoming, highly anticipated release, Wildcard to give away!

If you loved Warcross (or have been meaning to get to it) you can enter for a chance to read the sequel several months before its release!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
(You can also preorder the published version here)

About the Book:
Return to the immersive, action-packed world of Warcross in this thrilling sequel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu

Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone's put a bounty on Emika's head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn't all that he seems--and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

In this explosive sequel to the New York Times bestselling Warcross, Marie Lu delivers an addictive finale that will hold you captive till the very last page.




Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Spotlight: Sorcerous Rivalry

Book Blurb: 

" In the peace following the Great Mage Hunt, the king's long-time mistress is revealed as a sorceress. Locked away for the safety of the kingdom, bounties are placed upon the heads of the seven children she birthed. Mage hunters have scoured the kingdom for four years, searching for the seven scattered mage-born bastards.

After growing up in an orphanage, Reshi discovers his parentage and learns to hide his magic, living peacefully in a remote village with an unusual friend. But when an alluring mage hunter comes to town, his secret is revealed, forcing Reshi to reach out to his brothers and sisters for help. A family reunion might be Reshi's only hope for survival--or it might become a spell-slinging battle royale.

Who can Reshi rely on when his own family turns against him?"

Author Bio:

"Lifelong nerd and fangirl Kayleigh Nicol earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Animal Science at Cal Poly Pomona, California. After years of volunteering at zoos and aquariums in California, Kayleigh now works at a therapeutic horseback riding center in Long Island, NY. When not taking care of her own menagerie of rescued animals, she enjoys watching anime, playing video games and reading as many fantasy books as she can get her hands on."

Social Media: 

You can follow Kayleigh Nicol on Twitter:

Or on Facebook:

Book Links: 

Amazon: (Available for free on Kindle Unlimited)

Goodreads

Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Guest Post: Tess Keeler

Today I'd like to welcome Tess Keeler to the blog! She was kind enough to shed some light on her process of co-writing a novel with her wife. You can find Everything Comes Back to You on Amazon here.

Hey, everyone!

I’m Tess Keeler, co-author of Everything Comes Back to You, a YA/NA novel centered around two male childhood best friends who, you guessed it, fall in love. My wife, Saundra Keeler, and I wrote our debut novel with alternating point of views of River Saxton and Aiden Jacobs, the two main characters. Each of us had created our character from the heart and built their world around it. We took turns writing chapters from our personal character’s point of view. It was a fun and interesting process, but we enjoyed it, and we are currently writing our second novel in the same format.

That leads me to our subject of the day: I want to talk to you all about the process of writing a book with two authors.

We have always written in a back and forth process since becoming writing partners in 2012, but when we decided to start writing Everything Comes Back to You, we had never written the amount we were committing to. We started off with a 50,000 word goal, and by the end of the novel, we had over 80,000 words. 

We find outlining to be more structured, so we did that before anything else. Our novel is a little different than most, because it has a time jump of five years in the middle (hence the YA and NA genre title). Because of our time jump, we wanted to make sure that it was a mostly equal combination of both timeframes. We took our goal and divided it in half. That was where we would most likely make our shift. We took those amounts (25,000), and divided them by 2,500 (our chapter goals) to give us the amount of chapters needed to meet our goals.

Getting the number of chapters needed to fill our book was the easy part. We would write them down in list form with dashes beside them, and we would begin filling in our major events (while deciding if it was an event both of us needed to write a chapter about), spacing them far enough apart to create growth between events. We really aimed for creating an emotional bond between the readers and the characters. Then we chose who would start the novel, and the opposite person ends would the novel.

Once the major events were penciled in, we filled in any other scene ideas and where they would fall on our outline. We don’t always have a lot to start, but we usually have a good idea. The ones that are blank, we write “filler”. These are usually filled in later if we think of something, or the person writing that chapter with come up with something on the spot that is productive for the novel.

Working as a team can sometimes be difficult. Agreeing on supporting characters and how they behave can be a challenge, all while both learning to control them the same way. Before we can ever start writing, we have to have a face, name, and personality to every character we plan to introduce, so that we are both comfortable writing them in any situation.

The main characters can be tough as well, but we enjoy asking the other author what their character would say or how they would react instead, making it true and genuine to the character as the creator sees it in their heart, but written in the point of view character’s charm. River and Aiden are our babies. Each of us favor our own to the point of feeling betrayed when our friends assume I write hers and she writes mine. It’s silly really.

Our chapters are mapped and our characters created, so then we choose the setting, the overall ambiance of their environments, and all the other details that go into setting the tone of the novel. I find the location fun, because we spend time researching the places we choose. Portraying everything well is important to us. 

After writing everything down, the first person begins the first chapter, and then it’s in the moment decision making and brainstorming until we feel like the story has been tied up. 

One great thing about co-authoring is two sets of eyes proofreading and editing the work. We each read it wholly once, and then we decide if anything needs to be added. Is there anything missing from the story?

Since creating this process, we have been successful in keeping our momentum. I can write my chapter better knowing that Saundra is covering a certain event. I can lead up to it in a way that is beneficial to the character development and all over quality of the novel. 

And that’s it! 

I hope you enjoyed learning about our process. As most authors do, we hope our effort shines through our work. If you have any questions on the writing process of co-authors, you can find me on instagram: @tesshybe

About Everything Comes Back to You:
River and Aiden had been inseparable since Aiden’s family moved in next door to their West Seattle home, nearly seven years prior to their senior year of high school. River Saxton was a seventeen-year-old who loved music and comics. Aiden Jacobs was a sixteen-year-old who loved painting and girls. They both bonded over their dysfunctional families and the love they shared for their small group of friends.

After another uneasy breakup and a moment of vulnerability, Aiden was in River’s room, and suddenly they were kissing.
With River’s innocence and Aiden’s identity on the line, two best friends struggle to define the line between friends and lovers. 

When River leaves for an incredible opportunity in Florida, Aiden is left wondering what more he could have done to keep his best friend from moving on.

Five years of experience, growth, and suffering passes before they see or speak to each other again. River moves back home, but he’s brought someone with him. Aiden wedges himself in the middle of everything. Are they getting a second chance at friendship, love, or both?




Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Blog Tour: Bite Me

Title: BITE ME

Author: Louise Cypress

Pub. Date: May 14, 2018

Publisher: Louise Cypress

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 303

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon

I fell in love with the slayer sent to destroy me. 

Morgan Taylor-Jackson can't wait for high school to end. In six months she leaves for UCLA and says goodbye to La Jolla, California and her parents' messy divorce. But when Morgan is bitten by a four-year-old boy, she becomes infected with a mysterious condition. Fever, insomnia, and a new bustline are only the beginning; Morgan morphs from nerd to bombshell.

As far as Van Xander is concerned, all vampires are evil, even the ones who reject human sacrifice and call themselves Puritans. When Helsing Incorporated sends Van to La Jolla to investigate the local coven, Morgan is his prime target. Pretending to be interested in her, Van asks Morgan out and puts her through a series of tests to determine her killer nature.

Morgan is thrilled to be dating a hot guy like Van and falls for him hard. As Van strings Morgan along, he grows increasingly guilty. Morgan is kind, compassionate, and a gooey romantic. Just as Van's mind begins to change, evil forces threaten everything. When prom night arrives, there are only two ways out of the ballroom: death or immortality. 

About Louise: 

Louise Cypress believes in friendship, true love, and the everlasting power of books. She has never met a vampire, but she has been to a Love Sucks concert on Valentine’s Day. Louise can often be found curled up with a romance novel on Saturday night, diet soda in hand, secretly wishing bustles were back in fashion. Louise lives in San Diego, California, where the beach is crowded and summer is immortal.BookBub| Amazon Link| Instagram| Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card, International.

Rafflecopter Embed Code:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rafflecopter Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2750/?

Guest Post:

What do you like about writing in the YA genre? Why do you think it's important?

Young Adult books matter to teens andadults. I've seen research that suggests that up to 60% of all YA readers are over the age of eighteen. For indie books, that percentage is even higher. There is something about the YA genre that attracts readers of all ages, yet you don't see that happening with other branches of KidLit. Yes, an adult might buy a picture book to give to a niece or nephew, but she doesn't circle the release date on her calendar and download the picture book on her Kindle the moment it comes out. YA is special.

I love reading YA because the stories are full of hope and optimism. The world is still full of possibilities. There are no bills to bay, baskets of laundry to fold, or weeds to pull in the backyard. Reading a YA novel lets me escape to a time in my life when my biggest worry was getting good grades so I could go to college.

I love writing YA because when I was in high school I was so focused on studying that I didn't make time for fun. I went to a couple of dances but missed my senior prom. I had a boyfriend for a couple of weeks, but that was it. In high school I always felt too nerdy to love. All of my YA books feature main characters who are nerdy, but who eventually become brave enough to date and embrace romance on their own terms. Of course, in BITE ME, Morgan runs into a bit of trouble. She doesn't know that she's a vampire, or that her hunky date for prom is the slayer sent to destroy her. At least my high school experience didn't involve Promageddon!

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/21/2018- The Phantom Paragrapher- Review

5/21/2018- Mythical Books- Excerpt

5/22/2018- Ya wonderlust- Review

5/22/2018- Novel Novice- Guest Post

5/23/2018- The Young Girl Who Loved Books- Review

5/23/2018- Confessions of a YA Reader- Excerpt

5/24/2018- Simply Daniel Radcliffe- Review

5/24/2018- Owl Always Be Reading- Excerpt

5/25/2018- K.L. Knovitzke – Author- Excerpt

5/25/2018- Parajunkee- Interview

Week Two:

5/28/2018- To Be Read- Review

5/28/2018- BookHounds YA- Interview

5/29/2018- Two Points of Interest- Review

5/29/2018- The Howling Turtle- Guest Post

5/30/2018- Smada's Book Smack- Spotlight

5/30/2018- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

5/31/2018- Wonder Struck- Excerpt

5/31/2018- Jaime's World- Spotlight

6/1/2018- The Book Girl- Interview

Review: The Night Sister

Title: The Night Sister
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Page Count: 322
My Rating:  4 TURTLES: A great read, I definitely recommend.
*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Amazon

Description:
Once the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever.

Now adult, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Suddenly, Margot and Piper are forced to relive the time that they found the suitcase that once belonged to Silvie Slater, the aunt that Amy claimed had run away to Hollywood to live out her dream of becoming Hitchcock's next blonde bombshell leading lady. As Margot and Piper investigate, a cleverly woven plot unfolds—revealing the story of Sylvie and Rose, two other sisters who lived at the motel during its 1950s heyday. Each believed the other to be something truly monstrous, but only one carries the secret that would haunt the generations to come.

Review:

This was a bit of a departure from what I usually read (I don’t typically read many mysteries or thrillers) but I’m really glad I took the chance! Jennifer McMahon wrote an incredibly suspenseful mystery. I had to read the last sixty pages or so in one sitting because I had to find out what happened! I love how the story is told through different points of views in three set eras to trace the mystery over three generations. The pacing that new information about the mystery is revealed is perfectly timed. Slow enough that the suspense continues to mount, but quick enough to keep the story moving.

I also thought the characters were super compelling. Some likable and sympathetic, others less so, but the nature of the mystery always had me questioning whether or not some characters were who they were presented as being (some yes and some no). The casual queer representation in this book was also a big plus for me. I love it when characters’ queerness is a present part of their identity but it isn’t the most important thing about them. Don’t get me wrong, I love coming out type stories too, but getting to read characters who just happen to be queer is really exciting for me. The one character that felt a little flat to me was Jason. He was always there, but kind of pushed to the background and underdeveloped. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of who he was, because what was there was interesting.  

One things that seems incredibly difficult about writing mystery to me is coming up with the ending. How do you come up with a conclusion that lives up to the suspenseful build up? I think the book came up a bit short in this department. The suspense was so thrilling that even though the reveal at the end explained all the mysterious elements well and tied up all the loose threads, it did not feel as dramatic as everything that came before it.

Overall, though,  The Night Sister is an incredibly entertaining, enthralling, creepy novel and I would definitely recommend it.

Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

Review: Aversion

Title: Aversion (The Mentalist Series #1)
Author: Kenechi Udogu
Page Count: 133
My Rating: 4 TURTLES: A great read, I definitely recommend.
*I received this book in exchange for an honest review
Amazon

Description:
For Gemma Green’s first time, things should have been straightforward. Find your subject, hold their gaze and push a thought into their head to save them from future disaster – Aversion complete. A pretty simple process given that the subject was to have no recollection of the experience. But Russ Tanner doesn’t seem to want to forget. In fact the more she tries to avoid him, the more he pushes to get to know her. Gemma knows she has a problem but is she facing the side effects of a failed Aversion or has the school’s tennis champ really fallen for her?

Review:

I’ve seen other reviewers compare this book to The Adjustment Bureau, and I definitely have to agree. Crossing The Adjustment Bureau with a contemporary YA novel and adding a dash of I Am Number Four is the closest I can come to describing this book. The combination works really well and the book grabbed and held my attention from start to finish. 

It is fun to see the popular-guy-falls-for-not-so-popular-girl trope of contemporary YA appear side-by-side with Gemma discovering secrets about her parents and developing her powers. Although some aspects of the plot were familiar, these familiarities did not come off as trite. This is possibly because the plot was so unpredictable. Each new twist made sense within the context of the story, but I did not see it coming.

One thing I wished had been different with this story, though, is that I wish it had been longer. Its short length does make it very past faced, with every scene moving the plot along. And, while I love it when books have a sense of urgency to them, I felt like there could have been some more scenes to flesh out the story more. I was thinking of other contemporary YA tropes and waiting for Gemma and Russ to go on a field trip together and bond or get to know each other better when they were assigned lab partners, but since everything was so lean there were not any of these extra scenes. I think if this book were longer it would have given me a better grasp of setting and character and made the conclusion more emotional. That said, I still really enjoyed this book and think it manages to do quite a lot in a short amount of time.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially to readers of YA. Also, if you read it and love it, books two and three are already out so there’s no agonizing wait for a sequel! 





Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.