Lady Reader's Bookstuff: Blog Tour: BROKEN by CJ Lyons [Review, Excerpt, Giveaway & Special Discounted Pre-Order Price] @SourcebooksFire

For Scarlet Killian, every day is a game of Russian roulette—she has a 1 in 5 chance of dying…

Broken

By: CJ Lyons

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Expected Pub Date: November 2013

ISBN: 9-781-4022-8545-5

Hard Cover $16.99
Ages 12+

New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons makes her YA debut with a fast-paced thriller sure to keep readers guessing to the very last page.

Fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has one chance for a normal life. Only problem? It just might kill her. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, Scarlet has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. Scarlet has come to terms with the fact that despite the best efforts of her doctors and parents, she's going to die. Literally of a broken heart. So when her parents offer her a week to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never.

Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But for the first time in her life she makes real friends. She also makes new discoveries about the truth behind her illness... a truth that might just kill her before her heart does.

Broken was one of my most anticipated releases of 2013 and it did not disappoint.

Main character, Scarlet, has a terminal heart condition, yet she longs to be a normal teenager. Her parents grant her wish of letting her attend high school for one week.

Despite her physical limitations, Scarlet throws herself into the new adventure. Only high school is not nearly what she imagined. She finds comfort in her support group class, which is filled with other teens facing severe trauma.

For once, Scarlet has real friends, a real life…and the attention of the school bully. Scarlet is such a strong character and she faces every challenge and obstacle with bravery and courage. C.J. Lyons writes with such force that you can really put your life in comparison with Scarlet’s.

This book was labeled as a “YA thriller” and I could not see how a girl with a terminal illness could be part of a thriller, but halfway through the book, the plot took a totally unexpected twist and left me on the edge of my seat. From that point on, I couldn’t put the book down – and the ending left me absolutely floored.

Broken is definitely a book I would recommend that everyone adds to their “must-read” list.

PRE-ORDER BROKEN HERE $4.99:

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I always listen to music as I write—usually headbanging rock, like Godsmack, Mudvayne, Tool, Led Zeppelin, Slipknot, Metallica, etc.

But while I was working on BROKEN my usual playlist wasn't working—I think because Scarlet’s character is so sheltered and naïve compared to my usual kick-ass heroines and heroes.

So I actually listened to a lot of Celtic music (Whirligig, Amergin, Gaelic Storm—and of course had to include the Drop Kick Murphys to get my headbanging fix, lol) as well as classic Nirvana and the sound track from the Hunger Games (my first exposure to Taylor Swift).

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-one novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart.

Winner of the International Thriller Writers’ coveted Thriller Award, CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday).

Learn more about CJ's Thrillers with Heart at www.CJLyons.net

A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sixteen novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge thrillers with heart.
CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine), and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday).

The author of thrillers such as the Lucy Guardino FBI series, she has sold over 1 million books in the last year.

When not writing, she can be found walking the beaches near her South Carolina Lowcountry home in Columbia, SC, listening to the voices in her head and plotting new and devious ways to create mayhem for her characters. To learn more about her Thrillers with Heart go to www.CJLyons.net.

Praise for Broken:

“An intense page-turner. Readers will race to the end to see if Scarlet will uncover the truth about herself and those around her before it's too late.”—New York Times bestselling author April Henry

“Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak meets Kathy Reichs’ Virals.” —Jill Moore, Square Books, Jr.