.Cover Reveal: Awakened by @KristonJohnson

Love this cover, and that sword!! The blurb sounds pretty good, too, especially...   

"An innocent girl, tormented by demons only she can see, lives on the brink of insanity and longs for a life of peace."    "Assassinate their sworn enemy…Or sacrifice her soul"  


Yep, sounds like a winner, to me! What are your thoughts?   

Awakened
Kriston Johnson
Series: The Legends Of Elyndia, #1
Publication date:  April 25th 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads

Can fighting for the right side be the wrong thing to do?

Draven, the tyrant ruler of Elyndia for the last one thousand years, searches for the one who can fulfill his prophecy.

The Paladins, an elite band of warriors sworn to protect their way of life at all cost, search for the one with the ability to bring their world crumbling down.

An innocent girl, tormented by demons only she can see, lives on the brink of insanity and longs for a life of peace.

When seventeen-year-old Jade Rosenberg reads from an antique book, she has no idea she just read an incantation awaking her inherited power. But when opposing—and equally terrifying—groups invade her home, she learns she is descended from an enchanted realm and a member of a powerful race thought to have been hunted to extinction.

Ripped from her world, Jade is forced to seek refuge from those who want her dead. She is given one of two options and the time has come for her to make a choice: assassinate their sworn enemy…

Or sacrifice her soul.

 

Kriston's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Kriston Johnson lives in Southwest Washington with her husband, teenage son, and miniature Australian Shepherd. Her home rests at the fringe of an old growth forest that she insists is the home of Jason Voorhees. Her husband thinks that’s a ridiculous assumption, because everyone knows it’s really Bigfoot. Every summer Kriston participates in the annual pilgrimage to Faerieworlds, a real life faerie realm here on Earth, and has an unhealthy obsession with Star Wars, The Vampire Diaries, and Iron Man. Awakened is her first novel. You can visit her online at www.kristonjohnson.blogspot.com.

.Blog Tour #Review #Giveaway: Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Today, is my stop for the Second book in the Healer series
 Scent Of Magic by Maria V. Snyder where I share with you my review and some awesome giveaways! Check out my review for the first book in the series Touch Of Power HERE.

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scent Of Magic
By Maria V. Snyder

Paperback, 400 pages

Expected publication: December 18th 2012 by Harlequin MIRA

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomaniacal King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confidant, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle. 

 

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon's opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon's most horrible creations yet: an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat. 

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible...again.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Purchase Links:

 

Goodreads:

Amazon

The Book Depository
Barnes & Noble

 

 

Maria's Bio 

 

Maria V. Snyder changed from being a meteorologist to a novelist in 1995, when she began writing to keep her sanity while raising two children. Since then, she has published numerous freelance articles in magazines and newspapers, and teaches fiction-writing classes at the local college and area libraries. The classes give her the wonderful opportunity to encourage fellow writers, and to keep improving her craft. 

 

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria always had a fascination with big storms. Dreaming of chasing tornados, Maria earned a bachelors of science degree in meteorology at Penn State University. But she discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills. In order to chase tornados you had to predict where they might form. Creating fantasy worlds where she has complete control of the weather was more agreeable to her. 

 

Maria's research on food-tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing Poison Study. 

 

Maria has a brown belt in Isshinryu Karate, and enjoys playing volleyball and the cello. Traveling in general and via cruise ship in particular are her biggest distractions from writing. Maria has traveled to Belize, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal. 

 

Maria lives with her husband, son, daughter and yellow lab, Hazelnut, in Pennsylvania where she is at work on more LUNA novels. She is also pursuing a master's degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. 

 

Readers are welcome to contact Maria at the following email address: maria@mariavsnyder.com. 

 

 

Where you can find Maria: 

 

 

Website
 

Blog  

Goodreads
 

Facebook

A journey to discovering secrets, making new friends, as well as reconnecting with old friends. With lies, and deception,  and an imposing war, that include vile creatures, and zombie like soldier's,  Fantasy fans  will enjoy the next phase in the healer series, and will be left yearning for the the next book.

The second installment of the Healer series picks up right where the first one ends, Avry has escaped Tohan's  deranged hand, none to well. Lay dying, she is saved by Kerrick and he has brought her back from the brink of death, but as Kerrick is the only one whom knows what has happened to Avry, the others in her group are left to fear she has succumbed to her injuries, Kerrick comes up with a plan so only Avry and himself know she is alive, as they continue to fight Tohan and is soilder's.

Now, Avry must hide her identity, with magic as she ventures through part of the Nine mountains, alone, having parted ways with Kerrick, so they keep up their rouse, of her being dead, he must too, venture alone back to his kingdom, and the others whom await word from him, as to what direction needs to be taken as far as Tohan and his army goes.

Avry, knowing the only person left of her surviving family, whom despises her, is still alive, has left Avry with the need to save her, as well as trying to save another young girl, she heads off to where both girls are at, a place where Tohan has not yet acquired, in his journey to take over and rule all the kingdoms of the land, Estrid's Army.
Keeping her rouse Avry, becomes Irnia, as she squirms her way into the army of Estrid's company,  and explains to them she can teach them to move through the forest without detection, a valuable skill, they allow her into the army as she is now Sergeant Irnia, of the Gubkin Realm. Becoming close to the groups of leaders of the army, proving her worth leaves her with allies, as she teaches them the skill that was once taught to her by Kerrick, she knows this skill will come in handy while battling the army of the dead.


Kerrick in the meantime has to keep up his rouse of Avry's death as he is left to journey in the opposite direction as her and return to his kingdom to become what he is destined to become, King, a role he is not interested in. He also must keep up his rouse, and lie to his small ban of soldier's whom, have journeyed with both Avry, and Kerrick in the first book. These men have grown to love Avry, like a sister, and Kerrick whom also loves Avry, but as more of a woman,  must fake being sad, and lie to them about her being alive. Saddened, the small group has now separated and have their own duties in the role they play in the fight against Tohan and his army of the dead.


Because so much happens in this book, I'm not going to spoil it for you,  but  I will say that once you get into the story it does develop well and I enjoyed it more and more as the story continued. The last half of the book, had secrets revealed, battles, escapes, unlikely friends, and surprises, as well as death, hardship, and more. As the ending shared more than one surprise we are left with a cliffhanger, the next book in the series Taste Of Death, won't be released until 2014, oh woe is me....


Told in dual pov's throughout the book left me confused at first, as well as picking up from the last book, I felt I needed a refresher in the beginning, but once I got used to switching over of the POV's and I remembered the events from the last book, this one started to flow well at about the 40% mark is where I would say I started to enjoy this book. Being that Kerrick and Avry where not together, like in the first book, I wasn't too sure I would enjoy the direction Miss Snyder was heading, but she proved me wrong, and I did enjoy the story, as well as the many new characters throughout the book. As it seems the impending war has yet to begin fully, in this book it seems to be a slow build up to achieving friends or foe's who will stand up to battle and face Tohan and who will side with the evil monster. Miss Snyder has left me wondering, wondering what direction she will take the Healer series, and I highly anticipate the third book to be epic, as this book seems to be a stepping stone of sorts.

4/5 Fantasy Roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tour Schedule: 

 

12/10/2012 Parajunkee  http://parajunkee.com/      review and a Q&A 

12/11/2012 Paranormal Urban Fantasy Reviews  http://pnrurbanfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/    review 

12/12/2012 Read Now Sleep Later www.readnowsleeplater.com   Interview with Maria 

12/13/2012 The Book Heroine  http://www.thebookheroine.com/  review 

12/14/2012 We Fancy Books http://wefancybooks.blogspot.com/  Playlist 

12/17/2012 Two Chicks on Books  http://www.twochicksonbooks.com/    Guest Post From Belen 

12/18/2012 The Starry-eyed Revue  http://starryeyedrevue.blogspot.com/   Guest Post 

12/19/2012 A Great Read  http://jessica-agreatread.blogspot.com/    Review 

12/20/2012 YA Reads http://www.yareads.com/ Guest Post 

12/21/2012 The Book Hookup http://thebookhookup.com/  Review

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two different giveaways for this tour

US/Can only(but don't worry INT)-follow the tour for the INT giveaways

Harlequin teen will be giving away 1 copy of Scent Of Magic

as well as a second giveaway for

 Harlequin Teen Prize pack

Enter both rafflecopter forms to be entered in each giveaway

Ends Dec 22

International

Parajunkee

Read Now Sleep Later

We Fancy Books

The Starry-Eyed Revue

YA Reads

 

US/Canada

Paranormal Urban Fantasy Reviews

The Book Heroine

Two Chicks on Books

A Great Read

The Book Hookup

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Book Tour: Review+Interview+Giveaway: Throne Of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1)

by: Sarah J. Maas

Published: August 7th 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children's

ISBN:

1599906953 (ISBN13: 9781599906959)

E-ARC-Received from publisher

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.



Sarah J. Maas lives in Southern California, and over the years, she has developed an unhealthy appreciation for Disney movies and bad pop music. She adores fairy tales and ballet, drinks too much coffee, and watches absolutely rubbish TV shows. When she's not busy writing YA fantasy novels, she can be found exploring the California coastline.







1) Tell my readers how you came up with the idea for Throne Of Glass?

Well, it was wayyy back in 2002. I was sixteen years old, and at home one night, listening to the soundtrack to Disney’s Cinderella. Upon hearing the music that accompanies the moment when Cinderella flees the ball, I thought that it was pretty dark and intense—and way-better suited for a story where Cinderella had done something REALLY bad. Like…steal from the prince. Or—even better, what if Cinderella was an assassin sent to the ball to kill the prince? Thus Celaena Sardothien (the heroine of Throne of Glass) was born.
 

2) What's one thing my readers would be surprised to learn about you?

 Hmmm. I was in a Goosebumps book when I was younger. Yep. R. L. Stein’s kids went to my elementary/middle school, and for the annual fundraising auction, he donated a prize to have your kids’ names in his next Goosebumps novel. Well, I was a R. L. Stein fanatic, so my parents were awesome and bid on it—and won. So, Sarah Maas will forever be the heroine of The Curse of Camp Cold Lake (my little brother, Aaron, also got to have his name in the book).
 

3) What are you working on right now?

Book Two of the Throne of Glass series! I’m just starting revisions based on my editor’s feedback! And, as always, I’m just fiddling with a bunch of other, secret, non-TOG projects. ;)

4) What have you found to be the most difficult in the writing process ie: the writing, or the promoting?

Finding a balance between writing, promotion, and having a healthy social life. I think I’m still figuring out how to juggle it all, honestly.

5) What books have you read lately, any recommendations?

Recent releases?
Melina Marchetta’s Lumatere Chronicles (starting with Finnikin of the Rock).
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard.
Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
Legend by Marie Lu.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

Um, I could go on and on and on, because there are so many fabulous YA books out there right now.

6) I read that you grew up in New York, what a great experience. What would you say is your favorite NYC attraction(s)?

If I had to pick just one…Well, for me, it’d be the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. It’s where the American Ballet Theatre performs, and it’s probably my favorite place in the whole world. Growing up (and until I moved to California), my family had season tickets to ABT, and I just have the most lovely memories associated with the Opera House.

Though I also have a major soft spot for The American Museum of Natural History (I spent countless hours roaming the halls when I was a kid)



 

 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (such a mysterious, magical place).

7) Dream Sequence: Your book has been opted for a film, what actors would you like to see played as your characters?

Celaena: Jennifer Lawrence
(she was my perfect Celaena BEFORE she was cast in The Hunger Games!)

Dorian: Drew Roy

    

                          Chaol: Sam Worthington

 

   Princess Nehemia: Kat Graham

                                                                   

                                                                 

8) Think about your favorite film, now you’re inside that movie, what character would you be, and why?

 Oh, I think I’d want to be Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. It’s not my favorite-favorite film (definitely in my top 10 though), but it’s SUCH a magical film and magical world, and I have a major crush on Howl. :) 

9) If you could travel anywhere, real or fantasy world, where would you go and why?

 Gahhhh. Tough question.
 Let’s just keep it to this world, so this answer isn’t a million pages long. There are so many places on earth that I’d love to go to—so many things to see and people to meet that I honestly can’t pick one.
But…My grandma is a holocaust survivor—and as a child, she was smuggled around Europe, hidden in people’s houses and in schools and churches. I’d love to someday follow the path she took, and try to find the descendants of the people who risked everything to get her to safety. It’d be the trip of a lifetime—and an honor.

10) Finish this sentence: I can't live without __________?
COFFEE. (Not even joking.)




OK, here are some fun questions:

This or That

Summer or Winter? Autumn! Ha, sorry. Autumn is my favorite season—I’ve never been that into summer or winter (though now that I live in California, we don’t even have seasons.)

Coffee or Tea? COFFEE.

Cake or Pie? Cake!!!

Harry Potter or Twilight? Harry Potter, please! :)

Little Mermaid or Snow White? Little Mermaid, all the way!

TV or Movies? Oof. Um. UM. Movies. No. TV. Agh. Both. BOTH! (This is the most impossible question ever!)

Thanks for visiting Sarah, I enjoyed your reading your answers!!

Captivating and thrilling! You will fall for Miss Maas writing style, with fantastic world building, you will become lost within the pages of Throne Of Glass

Celaena, a heroine that I adore and wouldn't mind befriending, has spent countless days as a prisoner in the salt mines of Endovier, as a prisoner/slave, whom manages to survive day by day in  this ghastly place, where prisoners usually die within 3-6 month time span.
When all seems to be lost and all hope gone, for our heroine, hope comes in the form of  a group of men, and a proposition that may be too hard to refuse. This proposition, involves a death match of sorts, and freedom granted from the King himself . So, of course Calaena is eager to start but she must train vigorously and must sparr with the worst of them, she also must stay in the Kings castle, heavily watched over by numerous guards. Celaena is none to happy over being in the ice castle and is defiant verbally with those whom are trying to help. Slowly, Celaena builds relationships with the Captain of the guard, Chaol,  Prince Dorrian, and Princess Nehemia.

With the tournament under way with twenty participants, whom will, one at a time be eliminated after each round.  A participant's death has surfaced within the castle walls, then the mystery begins of the  who? what? where? is killing  more of them off. More mysteries come into light and I found them highly enjoyable as Miss Maas weaves an intricate story, that will have you enjoying every minute of it.

With a killer on the loose, Celaena is in full detective mode. She comes through with answers and manages to raise suspicion within her friends or foe. She is a strong, likable protaginist, who I just enjoy reading about.
Keenly away of her surroundings and highly mature for her age, we do see glimpse of Celaena's softer side and we actually see Celaena enjoying herself at times, as well as being her naturally carefree self. 

A blossoming relationship seems to be really budding in this book, and I highly enjoy the bantor of the Prince and Celaena, but that may be as far as we get as the relationship between these two is forbidden, but I'm not sure anything or anyone can pull these two apart.

I really enjoyed reading all 4 novella's as well as this book and I am a fan of Sarah's, now as well, I am highly awaiting book #2 in the series to see Celaena's adventure continue.....

Thank you Bloomsbury for inviting me on the tour and for the review arc of Throne Of Glass.

5/5 Stars



Since I loved this book I decided to share my love with a giveaway!

 Check out the rules below, Good Luck!

• Enter to win 1 copy of Throne Of Glass
• Must fill rafflecopter form
• Must be 13 yrs. older
• Winner will have 48hrs. to respond to winning e-mail
• Open to all (INT)
• open 8/22-9/14

a Rafflecopter giveaway