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Friday, May 31, 2013

CHANGE OF HEART by Scarlett Edwards: Book Blast + Giveaway




Persevere.

That's how I've gotten through nineteen years of life. It's what I do every single day—no matter how badly the odds are stacked against me.

Persevere, and survive.

Those are my two guiding words. I never knew either of my parents. I have no family and no home. The only person I could ever rely on was myself. In this cruel world, that's about as much as I could ask for.

Love? Hah. Don't talk to me about love. I stopped believing in it the day my first boyfriend ripped out my heart three years ago.

That's why love is the last thing on my mind when I leave a packed college bar with a captivating stranger. Yet everything changes when I'm awakened in the middle of the night by a pounding at the door. Suddenly, an arrangement meant for just one night threatens to become something much deeper.

All expectations are thrown to the wind as I'm tangled in a dangerous world unlike anything I can believe. The man I met has secrets swirling around him like a dark cape. I'm about to become his biggest one...


Together, we stumble toward the elevator. Rich breaks away for a second to hit the button. The light doesn’t come on.

“Damn,” he growls, “it’s busted again.”

I’m one step ahead of him. I’d spotted the stairs when we entered. I grab his hand and pull him after me with no hesitation. I start up the cement stairwell, determined to get to his room as fast as possible.

“Penny, wait.”

I look back, confused. “What?”

A devilish smile plays on his lips. “Only this.” Without warning his hands wrap around my waist, and I’m being lifted up as easily as if I were a doll. He turns to the side and presses my body against the wall, suspending me between him and the concrete.

His mouth crashes down on mine again. I curl my legs around his torso, locking my ankles together, and kiss him back with the passion reserved for a lover after ten long years apart. I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m getting even more turned on. Rich’s hands move down to grasp the outside of my thighs, and I moan into his kiss as the muscles of my core clench in sinful fashion. I want him so badly. If we don’t get somewhere private soon, I won’t be wholly opposed to jumping him in public.

I gasp as he steps away, freeing me from the wall. I start to fall, but one of his hands darts down to catch me just beneath the knees. The other one cradles my shoulders. Before I know it, I’m slung across his arms like a bride on her wedding night.

“I’ve always wanted to carry a girl up these stairs,” Rich admits.

I laugh, and wrap my arm around his neck. “Oh, you are just the best type of romantic.”

Four flights of stairs later, Rich pushes open the fire door to a dimly-lit hallway. He carries me down the hall and stops in front of an entrance on the right. He sets me down, then fishes around in his jeans for the key. When the door creaks open, he sweeps a hand out in front of him. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

I walk in, curious about his apartment. I tend to side with the camp of people who believe that a person’s living arrangements can reveal a lot about his personality. But, I don’t find much to work with here.

The apartment is sparse and dark. Pale moonlight filters in through the balcony window, shining down on the only piece of furniture present: a queen size mattress lying on the floor of the living room. The red brick walls are totally empty—no girly posters or other things I might expect in a bachelor’s apartment. There are no lamps, no chairs, no couches.

After a moment, I notice a second piece of furniture: a small, old-school CRT TV camped in one corner of the studio apartment.

Rich switches on the light. “So?” he asks, “what do you think?”

I walk past the entrance. There’s one hall leading away from the room. It is filled with brown cardboard boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. “Did you just move in or something?”

Rich laughs behind me. “Yeah, something like that. You want a drink?”

“A drink?” I say. “No, I—”

The words catch in my throat as he grabs my hips and spins me around. I had no idea he’d come so close. He’d moved from the door to me without making a sound. His fingers lock together against my lower back, and he tugs me into him, pressing my belly to his waist. I feel his growing erection right away, and a diabolical excitement builds inside me.

Nothing happens.

For a long moment, Richard just holds me like that, staring into my eyes as I’m left dangling off his arms. His irises are the color of sea mist. I’m hypnotized by the deep intensity I see brewing just beneath the surface. I have no doubt that that type of intensity is mirrored in my eyes.

Then, moving slowly, as if restraining himself, Richard lowers his mouth to cover mine. This time, his kiss is sweet and gentle. Subtle and caring. He explores my upper lip first, then traces the line going to the corner of my mouth. His lips form a perfect mold over mine.

I was wrong before. This is the kiss reserved for a lover you haven’t seen in ten years.


Purchase your copy today

I'm Scarlett Edwards. I'm a full-time student (2nd year, undergrad) and part-time writer. I hope to switch those around soon!

I'm kind of old fashioned. I write all my stories using paper and ink. At the end of the day, I transcribe them on my laptop. It takes a bit longer, but writing in a notebook really focuses my thoughts.


I love vintage photography. I have an old-school film camera that was my mom's from before I was born. I use it to take pictures almost every day. Yours to Savor is the first full book I worked on. It went through six drafts, and took me ten months to complete. In the two months since getting it done, I finished two drafts of brand new stories. I'm getting faster!


I love hearing from my readers. I love getting feedback about my books. I'm just getting started, and plan on doing this writing gig for a long, long time. I take inspiration from all the indie romance authors. Addison Moore, Samantha Young, Colleen Hoover, Jessica Sorensen, and everyone else…. you girls rock!
I love hearing from readers! If you read my book and want to share your thoughts, good or bad, email me  I'll be sure to reply!

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

#ArmchairBEA Day One: Introductions @ArmchairBEA

Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads.

1. Please tell us a little about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?



Hey there. My name is Amy, also known as Lady Reader. I am the Publicist for Rhemalda Publishing and I do freelance publicity work as well. 

I have been blogging at
Lady Reader's Bookstuff since August 2010. Three years is coming up quickly and WOW, it does not feel like it. Recently I began another website for my blog tours so I don't drive my readers crazy with the tour posts. It is a work in progress but it's worth it. I'd love for you to check out the websites and let me know what you think. I love feedback. Please remember, they're still "Under Construction". Lady Reader's Blog Tours and Lady Reader's Blog Tours & Promotions.


I started reading very late in life. To be precise, it was the summer of 2009. I first stumbled across
Goodreads and then found myself immersed into the wonderful universe of book bloggers. It was then that I discovered that individuals had actual websites where they could talk about the books they read or wanted to read. I thought it was the most awesome thing. I spent a good year reading, and then I decided to started my own. I began Lady Reader as a blog so I could tell everyone about the books that I loved so much and in return I made several wonderful blogging friends and have read books that I never would have known existed otherwise.

2. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. 



I live in Atlanta. I moved to Georgia from St. Louis, during the summer of 1996. 

Living in Atlanta is pretty awesome, aside from the tremendous traffic that is seriously non-stop. It is a beautiful city and the weather is nice and warm (most of the time). 

There are several epic events that take place in Atlanta. AJC Decatur Book Festival is one. 


Photo credit: DBF FB Page


The Decatur Book Festival is the largest Independent Book Festival in the Country. 

This awesome event takes place every Labor Day weekend (August 30th-September 1st 2013) in the beautiful historic downtown Decatur, Georgia.




3. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book that you have read so far in 2013.

I am currently beta reading a couple of manuscripts and I'm not really going to discuss those right now. However, I will tell you the best book that I've read this year. I could go on and on about how fantastic this book is, but I'd rather let you read it and then come back and tell me your thoughts. (This may be the best book I've EVER read. No lie.)



Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.


Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.



Amazon | B&N | IndieBound 

4. What is your favorite post that you've written that you would want everyone to read?


Okay. Now this is going to be difficult, because I have many. What I am going to do is tell you the post(s) that I've written and are more than awesome (in my opinion) but also were totally super fun to make. Those are the best ones, right?


5. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?


Andrew Smith. Hands down. No contest. I did not even have to think about that question. 

As a matter of fact, I plan to do just that this October (19th) when I go back to St. Louis for the LESS THAN <3 Conference

Not only is there an amazingggg panel of authors scheduled to speak at this anti-bullying event, I'm going to hang out with some of them. If all still goes as planned, Andrew will be one of them. Then I can say that I've gotten everything out of the literary world that I will ever want.


Thank you so much for visiting me and getting to know a little about me. 
Please leave a link to your post so I can return the favor and stalk check out your posts. 
I hope to see you again in the future. 
Happy Reading!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Some of my Favorite Male-Written Novels #MIYA




During the month of April my good friend, Evie at Bookish hosted the event MEN IN YA. How cool is that? I absolutely loved the idea and offered to help. Therefore, today I am going to share with you some of my favorite male-written novels.

 Ten of my favorite YA in no particular order and then as a bonus, I have shared a few of my all-time favorites.

 Evie and I both would love to hear what some of your favorites are.



by Nick Lake


by Andrew Smith


by Barry Lyga


by Brian James


by Stephen Chobsky 


6. Unwind 
by Neal Shusterman


7. Uglies 
by Scott Westerfeld


8. Rotters 
by Daniel Kraus




by Joe Lunievicz


by Rusty Fischer



And just because I can't stop with ten books, I'm going to throw a few more of my all time favorites in. 


Please don't judge. (At least too harshly.)


Books That Will Induce Mindfuck:


“Suddenly, I viddied what I had to do, and what I had wanted to do, and that was to do myself in; to snuff it, to blast off for ever out of this wicked, cruel world. One moment of pain perhaps and, then, sleep forever, and ever and ever.”  Anthony Burgess







“Your heart is my piñata.”― Chuck Palahniuk


“I laugh maniacally, then take a deep breath and touch my chest- expecting a heart to be thumping quickly, impatiently, but there's nothing there, not even a beat.”  Bret Easton Ellis


American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess



“My mother began to go crazy. Not in a 'Let's paint the kitchen red!' sort of way. But crazy in a 'gas oven, toothpaste sandwhich, I am God' sort of way.”  Augusten Burroughs

                                                                                                                                                                 “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”  Jack Kerouac 


“There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.” Kurt Vonnegut


                  


Friday, May 24, 2013

Book Blast: OVEREXPOSED by Adrianne James + Giveaway



Young Adult
May 24th 2013  
Star Bound Books
In the tiny town of Willowspring, just about nothing ever happens except for layoffs, hockey games, and your average melodramatic teenage angst.

But that was before.

Vi, Ashley, and Macy are just trying to make it through the school year without one more humiliation when they team up for a simple photography assignment: create a story through a series of photographs. Can't be too much trouble, right?

Wrong.

The shutterbugs happen upon Willowspring High School's darkest secret. When everything around them starts to crumble after trying to do the right thing, their only hope is to stick together.

When the door opened to the alley behind the rink, I realized two things. One, it was freaking colder outside than it was in the bleachers by the ice, and two, Brianna Jones (A.K.A Bra stuffer) was already out there.

The three of us walked out as if it was perfectly normal to be there but Brianna didn’t even notice us. We walked to the opposite side of the alley and huddled together. We hoped it would look like we were keeping warm, but we were trying to hide both the cameras.

Watching Brianna was rather dull. She was just standing there, talking on her cell phone and it wasn’t even anything remotely interesting. We took pictures anyway, because like Mr. Bennett said, you need the before, during, and after to tell a story with photographs.

“Look! She is checking that car’s doors! That isn’t her car, is it?” The quiet clicking of the shutters on our cameras was almost deafening to me. I swore each click was louder and louder as we watched Brianna try to break into a car.

Finally, the last door she tried, the back passenger side, was open. She slipped in and a second later, the dark car had a red glow inside. She climbed back out, shut the door, and walked over to the wall, smoking a stolen cigarette.

“She just broke into someone’s car for a cigarette? Seriously?” Ashley was just as flabbergasted as the rest of us. Why would anyone risk committing a crime for a smoke? “Oh! She is moving again!”

Click, click, click. I took more and more pictures. I hated that they were all from the same angle, but spys have to do what they have to do to keep from being caught, all the while still getting the images.

Brianna walked back to the car and put the cigarette out on the hood. Lucky for whoever owned it there was a layer of snow to put it out before it could burn the paint. Then she leaned over and used the mirror. She pursed her lips, showed her teeth to check those, then she lifted her head slightly.

“What is she doing?” I whispered.

“I’m not sure.” Macy said breaking away from the group. “I am going over there, different angle.” Before I could stop her, she had gone back across the alley to the other side. She was braver than I was. Ashley watched her closely before turning back to me.

“Let me take some. I promise I won’t hurt Jilly.” I knew I had to hand it over. I promised her she could use it. Even knowing that, it didn’t make it any easier.

“Okay. Here.” I took the strap from around my neck and quickly placed it around hers. The minute the fabric was firmly against her skin, she took off, too. “Ash, what are you doing?” I whisper yelled to her.

She just put a finger over her mouth to shush me and she got even closer to the car than Macy had. I figured that made me look out so I opened my eyes and ears and tried to make sure my best friends didn’t get caught.

I looked over my shoulder to check the door to make sure we were still alone when all of a sudden I heard a scream.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH! GIVE ME THAT CAMERA NOW!” When I turned back to see what was going on (although I was pretty sure that either Macy or Ashley had been caught by Brianna) I saw my girls running towards me, with Brianna not far behind.

“Run!” Ash and Macy yelled through giggles. I turned and headed to the door and held it open for them. As soon as they passed through I closed it and the three of us went straight out the front door and to Macy’s truck.

“What on earth just happened?” I asked when I caught my breath. Ashley handed Jilly back to me and I flipped it on. The minute I pressed the play images button I began to laugh. The first one was of Brianna screaming at the camera. I pressed the next button and then it was a picture of her finger in her mouth. The next one was a picture of her finger in her nose.

I died laughing. Brianna Jones was a booger eater. I bet her boyfriend would love to know that.

“Oh, Ashley, you are amazing!” Then the truck erupted in laughter and because Macy’s dad had given her a twenty to get food at the overly expensive rink, we headed to the diner for some hot cocoa and French fries for half the cost. Who said teenagers were irresponsible with money?



Growing up, Adrianne couldn't get her hands on enough books to satisfy her need for the make believe. If she finished a novel and didn't have a new one ready and waiting for her, she began to create her own tales of magic and wonder. Now, as an adult, books still make up majority of her free time, and now her tales get written down to be shared with the world.

During the day, Adrianne uses her camera to capture life's stories for clients of all ages and at night, after her two children are tucked in bed; she devotes herself to her written work. Adrianne is living the life she always wanted, surrounded by art and beauty, the written word and a loving family.

As a young adult and new adult author, Adrianne James has plans to bring stories of growing characters, a little romance, and perhaps a little magic and mythology down the line for her readers to enjoy.

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