Trail by Charm Blog Tour and Giveaway

Trial By Charm by Jolene Buchheit
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I totally enjoyed this book from the beginning to the end.
I hate 'waiting' for the next book, but that's adventures for you!
What got me was the Excerpt, then I couldn't wait to start.
Julia came into view as a not-so-typical 17 teener who wasn't fangirling over guys as her two besties and the rest of the female population at her school.
As a good swimmer and good child, she didn't hold
much back but had much respect. She spoke her mind about how she felt about Vander but when she discovered there was more to the jerk than what he's leading on, sparks seem to take flight pretty high for Julia.
Falling for the jerk and finding out she's destined for him?! Really? Who talks like that anymore! Fangirling here!

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Title: Trial By Charm 

Author: Jolene Buchheit  

Genre: Young Adult GreekInspired Urban Fantasy  

Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR 

Blurb:   
Seventeen-year-old Julia Wright doesn’t understand her friends’ obsession  with boys. She proudly maintains her composure no matter who is in her  presence – though some annoying and rude boys still manage to grate her  last nerve. Then she is blackmailed into being the manager of the men’s  swim team, and finds herself face to face with the worst of them all. 

Team Captain Vander Thelxinoe is the typical selfassured jock. He has the  ability to change people’s minds at will, only his charms don’t work on  Julia. Now he’s anxious to figure out why, and the closer he tries to get,  the more desperate she is to stay away – especially when he somehow  awakens a side of her she never knew existed. 

Their unexpected friendship puts Julia in the middle of a quest she  doesn’t quite understand. As her familiar world begins to unravel around  her, Julia must partner with the one person who knows how to push her  buttons – and, in doing so, discovers the unbelievable truth about who she  really is. 

Can Julia and Vander survive the trial set before them, or will they face  the extreme consequences of failure?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29553734trialbycharm 

Author Bio:  

As a substitute teacher, Jolene spends her days in high school classrooms harvesting  material for her Young Adult novels. She also uses it as an outlet for fangirling by  showing upcoming booktomovie trailers at the end of class, or discussing vital issues  like whether Katniss should have picked Gale or Peeta. 

She is committed to helping Special Education teenagers become independent adults  and helping them find a way to focus on the positive especially when life gets hard. At  home, Jolene loves to cuddle with her husband, two kids, and three cats—sometimes  all at once—while reading Young Adult books or repeatedly watching movies based on  them. 

Author Links:   

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2346BqP  

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JoleneBuchheitAuthor274326362776106/?fref=ts  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeeJolene  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13855435.Jolene_Buchheit  

Site: http://jolenebuchheit.com/ 

Buy Links:   

Amazon US http://amzn.to/2346KdK  

iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1094129293  

Kobo https://store.kobobooks.com/enus/ebook/trialbycharm 

Excerpt:  

I study his profile. His chiseled jaw and dark, floppy hair are like something out of a  magazine advertisement. His eyes, too—they aren’t dark to match his hair, like  mine—they are parts of green and blue, much like the painting of the sea in the other  room.   

“Who painted that piece above the couch in there?”  

He shrugs, not answering me in any concrete way. Then he shifts his weight from one foot to the other and his awkwardness makes it clear to me.  

“You did it, didn’t you? You’re a painter.”  

He shrugs again. I hop down from my stool to go take another look at the painting. The  artist must have signed it, and I will get my answer that way.  

I go down the hall, past the bathroom, the stairs, and the front door until I’m standing in  the parlor, looking at Vander, who is blocking the painting from my view. He must have  gone through the dining room next to the kitchen to end up in here before me. He’s  staring at me and chewing on his lip while flexing and balling his hands. He’s more  nervous than I have ever seen him—not before a swim meet, not in class when he  didn’t know an answer, not when he told me how he felt in the bathroom a little bit ago.  This is where his heart lies, in this painting of this island.   

I try to look around him, and he leans over.   

“Don’t.” He is stern, but gentle. He clears his throat. “Please don’t touch it. You will want  to, but don’t.”  

He’s right. I do want to touch it; I want to climb inside of it. I’m seeing it, and somehow  it’s seeing me, and it’s making me feel pulled apart. I want to dive into the waters, to  swim to that faroff land, and I also want to turn the boat around and sail as far and as  quickly as I can in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the light from the sun is dimming,  laughing at me for thinking I can have any control here.   

I want in!  

Vander grabs both of my arms, which are currently outstretched toward the painting. My  knees are on the seat of the couch, and I don’t even remember moving forward. His  voice startles me. “You can’t.”  

I blink hard and turn to look him fully in the face. “I can’t what?”  

“You can’t go there, and you can’t go away from there. It’s just a painting.” Was I talking  out loud, or can he read my mind? How does he know what I was thinking? I let him  lead me through the dining room, back into the kitchen, where the timer is going off. I  shake my head to let loose the feelings that painting stirred in me.  

“It’s more than that, and you know it. How?” I don’t even have to finish the sentence. He  knows exactly what I’m asking. 

Book Review: Hair In All The Wrong Places by Andrew Buckley

Hair in All the Wrong Places: The Perils of Growing Up Werewolf by Andrew Buckley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was wholely entertained! Is that a word (wholely)? O wellers (so is that)!
This is a good story with a twist on modern life, but in a little town with secrets and a whole handful of paranormal characters everywhere!
Colin is a young teen growing more aware of himself, so does everyone else, especially Becca and Gareth, well the whole town to be exact. He doesn't fit in, he's different, and everyone makes sure he knows it too. That sure doesn't boost a guy's confidence at all! But props to Colin because even though he gets bullied emotionally, physically and verbally, he goes to school everyday and tries to move on past it all. He's not a drug addict or hangs with the wrong crowd. He may make stupid choices and is an unsuccessful runaway, but he's still this simple guy that this one simple girl has a crush on.
The story starts out a little slow but very descriptive in detail. The town and its people all have their history and their story. And as the story progresses, so are many questions answered.
There's humor because there's nothing too boring about a young teen. There's always something happening, always something going through their growing mind and body.
As things started to happen, the story got more interesting. There were no breaks of bla anywhere.
The more you knew about the town and Colin's transformation, the more interesting it got!
Until it's 2am on a weekday night!
Yep, I hope there's a part 2 and more to look forward to.
I took a few things from this story.
First, Colin isn't a failure but a young teen finding himself and what it means to believe in yourself.
Second, BULLYING! There's apparently two kinds. There could be more but I learned two. One kind of bully is one who wants "people to be afraid of them." But, the second, the worst kind is the one "who really enjoys it."
Third, writing seems to be second nature to some authors. They can really tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. The story had very organized structure and laid out events. Nothing seems out of place and the whole story itself flowed fairly well. When I read and isn't confused between who is saying what, that's a nice feature, using italics, and bold texts.
I love the telekinetic communication between special people, the paranormals! Mind reading is also cool but to be able to see their whole history is WOAH!
The author has also done his homework or has truly remembered and learned how different paranormal character behave or their history. For instance, the connection between werewolves and the Native Americans. That's consistent throughout many telling a of the werewolves and their history.
I really did enjoy everything the author has put into this story. Thanks! 

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The Kepler Chronicles: Artificial by Jadah McCoy

"AND  ALL  THESE  PEOPLE-  MY  PEOPLE,  THE  LAST  FEW SURVIVORS  TURNED  INTO  THE  CREATURES  THEY  FEAR MOST. I THOUGHT WE COULD  EXTERMINATE THE CULL...

THAT ELITE WOULD BE OURS AGAIN ONE DAY."

EBOOK:        978-1-62007-493-0 

PAPERBACK:          978-1-62007-497-8

RELEASE DATE:    APRIL 4TH, 2016 

PUBLISHER:      CURIOSITY QUILLS

SHE STRUGGLES TO FEEL HUMAN.

In 2256, the only remnants of civilization on Earth’s irst colonized planet, Kepler, are the plant-covered buildings and the nocturnal, genetically spliced bug-people nesting within them: the Cull. During the day, Syl leaves her home in the sewers beneath Elite City to scavenge for food, but at night the Cull come looking for a meal of their own. Syl thought gene splicing died with the Android War a century ago. She thought the bugs could be exterminated, Elite city rebuilt, and the population replenished. She’s wrong.

Whoever engineered the Cull isn’t done playing God. Syl is abducted and tortured in horriic experiments which result in her own DNA being spliced, slowly turning her into one of the bugs. Now she must ind a cure and stop the person responsible before every remaining man, woman, and child on Kepler is transformed into the abomination they fear.

HE STRUGGLES NOT TO.

For Bastion, being an android in the sex industry isn’t so bad. Clubbing beneath the streets of New Elite by day and seducing the rich by night isn’t an altogether undesirable occupation. But every day a new android cadaver appears in the slum gutters, and each caved in metal skull and heap of mangled wires whittles away at him.

Glitches—androids with empathy—are being murdered, their models discontinued and strung up as a warning. Show emotion, you die. Good thing Bastion can keep a secret, or he would be the next body lining the street.

He can almost live with hiding his emotions. That is, until a girl shows up in the slums—a human girl, who claims she was an experiment. And in New Elite, being a human is even worse than being a Glitch. Now Bastion must help the girl escape before he becomes victim to his too-human emotions, one way or another.

Meet Jadah Mccoy

Jadah currently lives in Nashville, TN and works as a le- gal coordinator. When not babysitting attorneys, she can be found juicing her brain for creative ideas or fantasizing about her next trip out of the country (or about Tom Hid- dleston as Loki - it’s always a toss up when she fantasiz- es.)

She  grew  up  in  rural  Arkansas,  yet  can  still  write  good and sometimes even wears shoes! She did date her first cousin  for  a  while  but  they  decided  against  marriage  for the sake of the gene pool.

Her true loves are elephants, cursing, and sangria - in that order. If you find an elephant that curses like a sailor whilst drinking  sangria,  you’re  dangerously  close  to  becoming her next romantic victim - er, partner.

She cut her writing teeth on badly written, hormone-driven faniction (be glad that’s out of her system), and her one true dream is to have wildly erotic faniction with dubious grammar written about her own novels. Please make her dreams come true.

Find her in real life 

Book Signing Southeast Arkansas Regional Library April 16, 2016, @11am - 2pm

Book Festival Utopiacon 2016, Nashville June 22nd - 26th Curiosity Quills Booth! 

UPCOMING: GEEK GIRL CON SEATTLE

Find her Online

FOR MORE HIGH -QUALITY FICTION, VISIT US AT CURIOSITYQUILLS.COM

Praise for Artificial

Ok, let’s just get this out of the way up front.... I LOVED this book. Jadah captivated me with her brilliant world building and her vibrant characters. Whenever I had to put the book down for “real life” stuf I couldn’t wait to pick it up again. The balance between human and not human, glitch and normal in the story fascinated me. And I loved Syl’s gritty personality. I deinitely recommend this book to anyone who likes dystopia and sci-i.

Elisabeth Kauffman, Writing Refinery

This book is SO FUN. I loved the strong, efortless world-building, the realistic and gritty characters, and the fact that this book is an utter page-turner. McCoy weaves classic android and bug - monster scii tropes with her own unique, action-packed world and delivers one hell of a story that takes ex- actly 0 prisoners in its exploration of what exactly makes one human-- and whether or not humans are really any better than animals or androids. I loved this book so damn much, especially Bastion. Bastion♡ 5/5 stars. 

Jessica Harvey, Author of Gyre

This is an absolute 5 star book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, from the moment I was immediately sucked into the world of Syl. What amazing world building from page one, which didn't let me come up for air until the end, along with page turning action and just the right hint of romance. Nothing was overdone. It was all perfect. And Bastion, what a character. His wit matched with Syl's spitire is the right blend for great chemis- try. I can't imagine what will happen in book two... 

Melissa Mcfarlane, Author of There once were stars

Book Review: Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato

I had the luck of getting to read this book on my Nook by Barnes and Noble on their B&N Readouts for the month of March. It's a good read and I'm looking forward to continuing Octavia and Alonzo's journey with book 2 The Clockwork Crown in the Clockwork Dagger series.

The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book review: Clockwork Dagger

This is a different approach at being a doctor; a well gifted Medician that uses herbs and spices as her source of cure with the aid of The Lady Tree. In a world ravage by the Wasters vs the Caskentia and other neghoring countries, the sick are dying from hunger and diseases and a kingdom with a queen that hides only to protect herself. Octavia is a Medician, a naturalist Doctor that uses her gifts which some can describe as faith and magic. She was rescued and raised by Ms. Percival of the Percival Academy, quiet talented for her age, she's sent on a journey to a land where she can help heal and finally live out the life she planned for herself. But Life have other plans for and she is being chased, many attempts on her life, and learned that things are not as they seem, and so are the people who surrounds her. A Clockwork Dagger, an assassin of the Queen, defies orders by sticking with Octavia saving her life on more than a few occasions. Sent by Ms Percival as a request, Mrs. Stout, was sent along to help and aid and protect Octavia on her trip to her destination. There are flying tricycles that sounds like helicopters, mechanical limbs and mechanical people and birds, gremlins that are actually chimeras of some sort, people wielding the power of fire in the palms of their hands, factories and schools and hotel, and The magical Lady Tree. It's a mix of modern, fantasy and scifi. 

 

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