The Long Way Home by Jessica Scott: Giveaway, Excerpt, Trailer & Cover Reveal!

Jessica Scott has a new book out today, a non-fiction. "The Long Way Home" is a follow up to "To Iraq and Back" which was a compilation of blog posts about her time as soldier in Iraq while this one takes a more personal approach. You can read this one without having read "To Iraq and Back".

I love the cover; the juxtaposition of war and family, drab helmet and cute toy. It perfectly summarizes the jobs and challenges that Jessica, and other soldiers, face both during their tour of duty and when they returrn.

Blurb from the author ~

My name is Jessica Scott. I am a soldier. I am a mother. I am a wife. 

Bestselling novelist Jessica Scott takes you on her first person journey home from war. 

In 2009, Army second lieutenant Jessica Scott deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. She thought deploying was the hardest thing she'd ever do. 

She was wrong.

This is the story of a mother coming home from war and learning to be a mom again. This is the story of a lieutenant making the grade and becoming a company commander. This is the journey of a writer persevering through a hundred rejections. This is the story of  a soldier learning to be a woman again. This is the story of a soldier learning to ask for help.

This is the journey as it happened, without commentary.

This is her blog. There are many blogs from the Iraq war, but this one is hers.

Publisher: Tormia Creatives
Genre: Non-fiction, Memoir
Format: ebook, paperback
Length: 343 pages
Release Date: March 18, 2013

Take a look at the book trailer, see what you think.

Did that get your interest? Still not sure? Check out this excerpt.

The Long Way Home - Excerpt

 

Make sure you check out the reviews on Goodreads and if you haven't already, add it to your shelf! Get your copy today: Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Amazon | Kobo

To celebrate the release of "The Long Way Home", Jessica is giving away digital copies of her entire backlist (romance and nonfiction) to a lucky commenter. The giveaway will run through 11:59PM EST of Sunday March 24th. Please read my Giveaway Policy.

Hell's Hollow by Summer Stone Cover Reveal

I've always been fascinated by fiction stories involving psychic abilities. they call to me. So when I read the blurb for this story, it sounded appealing. "Hell's Hollow" is a YA book coming out this month.

When Seraphina was younger, she healed her best friend's injured hand. Terrified by the inexplicable cure, the girl shunned her. From that day on, Seraphina found herself without friends, a freak and an oddity. And so she obeyed her mother’s rule to refrain from using her innate ability, heeded her mother's warning that its use could land her in the local mental health facility alongside her aunt and grandmother.

But when sixteen-year-old Seraphina finds a mysterious, wounded boy hiding in the hollow in the woods behind her house, she can't hold out against the overpowering urge to help him. She is drawn to him each night, and as they come to know one another, their irresistible attraction blooms.

She longs to uncover his secrets — where he comes from and why he's hiding and how he came to be so wounded — and to share her own, though she knows it's forbidden. And while her healing touch seems to be helping him, it's hurting her. When the symptoms of psychosis — experienced by the women in her bloodline who used their powers — begin to plague Seraphina, she is faced with the unbearable choice of saving her sanity or the boy she’s come to love.

Hell's Hollow by Summer Stone

Publisher: Summer Stone

Release date:  March 2013
Genre: YA Paranormal

More info: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17370950-hell-s-hollow

 About the Author ~

Summer Stone loves immersing herself in the worlds that live inside her mind. When she's in the real world, she likes kicking back on the beach, exploring new places, reading (of course) and eating rich, gooey chocolate. She loves spending time with her husband and kids, which she does as much as she can. Summer writes young adult and women's fiction, both supernatural and contemporary, realistic and looks forward to sharing her novels with you!

Author Links:

Website: http://summerstonebooks.blogspot.ca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SummerStoneBks

What do you think? Will you be adding this to your TBR pile?

New Mira Grant Cover!!!!!!!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's a new Mira Grant book coming out in November and today Orbit Books unveiled the cover.  I couldn't find anything about the book on either the Mira Grant site or the Seanan McGuire site but goodreads has a blurb. It looks to be the first book in a new series.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Book Blurb from goodreads ~

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.

We owe our good health to a humble parasite - a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system - even secretes designer drugs. It's been successful beyond the scientists' wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.

But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives... and will do anything to get them.

Is it November yet?

Cover Reveal: Out of Play by Jolene Perry & Nyrae Dawn

Entangled Teen has a new romance coming out this summer, "Out of Play", by Jolene Perry and Nyrae Dawn. Pitched as Gayle Foreman's "Where She Went" meets Miranda Kenneally's "Catching Jordan", a self-absorbed eighteen year old rock star is sent to Alaska to get himself together after a drug overdose, but the cute hockey player and her grandfather who live next door challenge him to think beyond the baggie of pills he's still sneaking. 

Blurb ~

Rock star drummer Bishop Riley doesn't have a problem. Celebrities—especially ones suffering from anxiety—deserve to party, right? Wrong. After taking a few too many pills, Bishop wakes up in the hospital facing an intervention. If he wants to stay in the band, he’ll have to detox while under house arrest in Seldon, Alaska.

Hockey player Penny Jones can't imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers, the last thing she wants is to leave. Who'll take care of her absent-minded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered with the new tenants next door.

Penny’s too hung up on another guy to deal with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick…and Bishop’s about to run out of time.

Buying Links (pre-order):  Amazon   Barnes & Noble

What do you think? Does the cover grab you? Give you a clue what the story is about? 

Excerpt & Cover Reveal: Girls & Monsters by Anne Michaud

Author Anne Michaud has a new book coming out in April, a YA dark fantasy/horror anthology. Anne is another author from Kelley Armstrong's message board; that board sure does produce a lot of authors!

While Anne has had stories in other anthologies, this is the first one that is exclusively her own stories.
Anne is an author of many talents, especially getting distracted by depressing music and dark things. She likes to write and read everyday, and speak of herself in the third person.

Since her Master’s degree in Screenwriting from the University of London, England, Anne has written, directed and produced three short films, now distributed by Ouat! Media in Toronto, Canada. The lyric documentary Worth a Thousand Words (2006) can be seen here.

And then, after hundreds of hours spent on studying and making films, she changed her mind and started writing short stories, novelettes and novels. Some have been published, others will be soon enough.

Keep your eyes open, she’s behind you.

Find Anne online:


blog
twitter
facebook

Book Blurb (from goodreads)

This dark but uplifting collection of five Young Adult novellas includes:

Death Song: Liz is in love with Joe, but the monster of the lake has other plans for them.
Black Dog: Scarlet is engaged in a struggle for her sanity, but according to the voice in her head, she may be too late.

A Blue Story: When Katherine's beloved dog goes missing, she fears her strange new neighbor might be involved.

Dust Bunnies: Christiane faces her childhood arachnophobia and ends up confronting even greater fears in this test of sisterhood.

We Left at Night: Brooke and her family must abandon their home and their lives to make it out of a disease-plagued town overrun by zombies.

Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it.

Publisher: DarkFuse
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror
Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 30, 2013

I love the colors! So pretty and eye catching. Also, the top half of the book with the girls and the peppy pink color looks bright and cheery, then you move down the cover and the color becomes darker and gloomy with monsters and only one girl. It's a fantastic contrast, well done. What do you think?

And now, an  excerpt!

******************************************************************************

Death Song Excerpt

Something catches in the back of my throat. I

hide my face in my hands to quiet the sobs. But then,

something ain’t right. Air moves around me and I

stop. I look between my fingers, but the blur of my

tears thickens everything: the bathtub, the towels,

and someone on the floor.

A woman’s in here with me, door still closed and

locked. An exhale, like after a deep swim, and a smell,

like the swamp close to my empty home. A chill runs

down my back, I wipe my eyes, rub and scratch them

to see more clearly. And I do.

Two gray hands scratch the floor tiles, nails green

with algae, putrid flesh sagging on her legs, arms

and torso, hair so long and wet and heavy, it drags

her down. Diluted, impossible to focus on, like little

waves rippling over her body from head to foot, seaweed

in the water. Scales and fins, mermaidlike, little

knives, those are. And they scrape the floor, like a

fork on a plate. It’s her—Limnade.

She opens her mouth of scissor-teeth and the rotten

smell of fish wraps around my throat like two

hands trying to choke me.

“You can’t be…” I don’t finish my breathless

thought and jump backward, knocking over the dish

of decorative soaps. Blurry waves, vision impaired,

out of focus, unreal. She crawls toward me, eyes unblinking,

lethal, hands inches from me: my legs refuse

to move, as my body feels like stone. Frozen,

hypnotized, a statue. Then I hear something coming

from within her…

A melody, reminding me of something lost, tickles

my ears. It drags on until the sweetness turns sickly,

vibrating into a full-on super-scream, hyenalike,

enough to pop my ears and make them bleed. Her

large mouth deforms her face into one gap of black,

the cry so high and strident, I scream from the pain.

Limnade stares at me, everything but her fades

away—Jo’s nice bathroom, Jo’s new life, Jo himself—

none of it matters anymore. Her fingers brush my

forehead, they’re cold and sticky like clams. And I let

the darkness take me away.

Cover Reveal for The Dragon Empire by Heather McCorkle

This is a forthcoming epic fantasy novel featuring dragons. I'm not a big epic fantasy fan but I do love dragons so I'll be picking this one up and checking it out. In the meantime, we get to enjoy the cover, which IMO does not have enough dragon goodness on the cover.

First, a little about the book.

The Dragon Empire by Heather McCorkle -- February 2013 / Compass Press

Book Blurb (from author):

On Yacrana, dragons stand at the top of the evolutionary ladder instead of humans. Such an advanced species is not without its issues though.

There's trouble in the Dragon Empire, the kind that could start a war between dragons and the races of people. Hidden factions of dragons believe they should rule the lesser races, not simply stand aside and allow them to develop as they will. Having lived so long in peace, the Emperors turn a blind eye, many oblivious that such attitudes even exist.

Despite being only an architect class, emerald dragon, Grendar is willing to risk banishment and death to stop that which his rulers refuse to see. The hope of peace lies not within the scaled breast of a dragon however, but within the hands of a group of people. But if the hidden factions have their way, these people won’t live to fulfill such a destiny. With a reluctant seer at his side, Grendar must leave his precious Empire for the outside world to save those that will one day save his kind.

Author Heather McCorkle in her own words ~

I am an author of fantasy, in all its many sub-genres. Living green, saving endangered species, helping other writers, and supporting fabulous authors are a few of my passions. I am also a volunteer for the IS Foundation which works to make the world a greener place. When I'm not volunteering, writing, or surfing my social networking sites, I can be found on the slopes, the hiking trails, or on horseback. As a native Oregonian, I enjoy the outdoors almost as much as the worlds I create on the pages. No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find me here, on my blog, and Monday night's on Twitter where I co-moderate the #WritersRoad chat.

Author Links:

Website: http://heathermccorkle.blogspot.ca/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4957267.Heather_McCorkle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Heather-McCorkle/211058455603533

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherMcCorkle

Blue and green are two of my favorite colors so the cover appeals to me color-wise but I do wish we saw more dragon on the cover. I also like how spacious the design is and not cluttered. What do you think? Does the cover grab you and make you want to read it?

Flirting with Disaster Cover Reveal

Ruthie Knox is a romance author who is on a hot streak. Her second book, "About Last Night", was a Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award nominee, in the “Contemporary Love and Laughter” category, Romantic Times magazine and also a Library Journal Best Ebook Romance of 2012.

Ruthie figured out how to walk and read at the same time in the second grade, and she hasn’t looked up since. She spent her formative years hiding romance novels in her bedroom closet to avoid the merciless teasing of her brothers and imagining scenarios in which someone who looked remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis recognized her well-hidden sex appeal and rescued her from middle-class Midwestern obscurity.

After graduating from Grinnell College with an English and history double major, she earned a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably little use. These days, she writes contemporary romance in which witty, down-to-earth characters find each other irresistible in their pajamas, though she freely admits this has yet to happen to her. Perhaps she needs more exciting pajamas. She’d love to hear from you, so drop her a line.

Find her online:

Website and Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads


Ruthie has a new series, her first, starting in January. The Camelot series consists of a hundred-page novella,"How to Misbehave", and two full-length novels, "Along Came Trouble" and "Flirting with Disaster", set in the Midwestern college town of Camelot, Ohio. It revolves around the three Clark siblings — Amber, Caleb, and Katie — and contains a number of hot security guys, extended-family shenanigans, banter, angst, and of course the occasional steamy scene, just to keep things interesting.

The books are available as eBooks and can be found at all major ebook vendors.

Cover Reveal: Timespell by Diana paz

Timespell by Diana Paz - Publication date: April 1st, 2013 / Rhemalda Publishing 

Book Blurb (from author):

In TIMESPELL, the brash and impulsive Julia must team up with her sweet and straight-laced best friend, Angie, and the malicious and power-hungry Kaitlyn in order to keep the witch-like powers of her inheritance. But these powers come at a cost. The girls are bound to serve the Fates, and their first mission sends them back in time to Marie Antoinette’s Paris and eventually, into the chaos and war of the French Revolution.

AUTHOR BIO:

Diana Paz writes books about magic, adventure, and romance. She was born in Costa Rica, grew up on Miami Beach, moved to Los Angeles in high school, and went to college in San Diego. Basically, she’s a beach bum. Diana graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts. She loves old movies, epic fantasy, all kinds of music, and heading to the beach with a good book. Preferably sipping a highly sweetened iced coffee. (I love iced coffee! I do drink it less sweet than hot coffee but it's still pretty sweet. Basically, I have coffee with my cream and sugar. :D ~ Bea)

Author Links:

Website: http://www.dianapaz.com/

Blog: http://www.dianapazwrites.blogspot.ca/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dianapazwrites

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dianapazwrites

The style and pose have been done to death but I love the colors in this and the title font.

 

Curious? Want more? Check out this book trailer.

Cover Reveal: The Tiger’s Heart by Marissa Dobson

Another day, another reveal! Heh, yeah it's been crazy around here lately with reveals and spotlights; this seems to be the month for them. Today, I have a PNR by Marissa Dobson, owner of Sizzling PR, a blog tour company I work with, has a new book out.

Born and raised in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, Marissa Dobson now resides about an hour from Washington, D.C. She is a lady who likes to keep busy, and is always busy doing something. With two different college degrees, she believes you are never done learning.

Being the first daughter to an avid reader, this gave her the advantage of learning to read at a young age. Since learning to read she has always had her nose in a book. It wasn’t until she was a teenager that she started writing down the stories she came up with.

Marissa is blessed with a wonderful supportive husband, Thomas. He is her other half and allows her to stay home and pursue her writing. He puts up with all her quirks and listens to her brainstorm in the middle of the night?

Her writing buddies Max (a cocker spaniel) and Dawne (a beagle mix) are always around to listen to her bounce ideas off them. They might not be able to answer, but they are helpful in their own ways.
She love to hear from readers so send her an email at marissa@marissadobson.com or visit her online at http://www.marissadobson.com.

Find Marissa online:

Website / Facebook / Facebook Street Team / Twitter
 
"The Tiger's Heart" is book two in the Alaskan Tigers series.

Book Blurb (from the author):

When the Lieutenant of the Alaskan Tigers Raja Harrison rescues Bethany from the hands of kidnappers he gets more than he bargains for. It was supposed to be an easy rescue, instead he finds the injured Bethany—and his mate. For years he’s avoided the mating topic, believing his job is too dangerous to risk another. But now Bethany threatens to risk that fragile control he’s once had.

A rogue shifter wants Bethany Thompson and is determined to destroy all she holds dear, along with the tiger shifter population. When she’s kidnapped, beaten and forced into the world of shifters, her whole world is turned upside down. The shifter problems now are her problems as her family secret comes to light.

Can Raja and Bethany join focuses with the other elders of the Alaskan Tigers to bring down the rogue shifter? Or will the rogue destroy all Raja serves to protect?

To celebrate the release of book two, Marissa is giving away an ebook copy of Tiger Time (Alaskan Tigers, Book One). Giveaway ends on December 9th at 11:59pm

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, for "The Tiger's Heart" ~

 

Cover Reveal! The Midnight Spell by Rhiannon Frater and Kody Boye

Writers Rhiannon Frater and Kody Boye have joined up to write "The Midnight Spell" a YA book releasing in February 2013. Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.

Kody Boye was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho. Since his initial publication in the Yellow Mama Webzine in 2007, he has gone on to sell nearly three-dozen stories to various markets. He is the author of the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the dark fantasy novel Blood. His fiction has been described as ‘Surreal, beautiful and harrowing’ (Fantastic Horror,) while he himself has been heralded as a writer beyond his years(Bitten by Books.) He currently lives and writes in the Austin, Texas area.

Kody's Links:

Website: http://kodyboye.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2775292.Kody_Boye

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kody.boye

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KodyBoye

Rhiannon's Links:

Website: http://www.rhiannonfrater.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2310121.Rhiannon_Frater

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhiannon.frater

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhiannonfrater

Book Blurb (from the authors):

Best friends since kindergarten, Adam and Christy have always been the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas.  The other kids call Adam gay and Christy a witch.

On both counts the bullies are right.

Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious boy enrolls at school and sets hearts a flutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome football player Ian seems to be going nowhere fast and her witch puberty is making her life miserable.

When a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, the best friends realize that finding a boyfriend is the least of their worries. Soon Adam and Christy will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before, and will again.

Goodreads

 

And now, the cover!

 

 

 

Cover Reveal: Hidden Gates by D.T. Dyllin

Today I have an absolutely gorgeous cover to share with you. It's a real eye catcher, and uses my favorite colors. "Hidden Gates" is the first book in the P.J. Stone Gates trilogy by D.T Dyllin. The expected release date is January 2013.


The blurb (from the author):

For P.J. Stone, being a “Seer” who has never seen anything is less than fun. And P.J. isn’t known for her patience.

To make matters worse, she must choose a suitable mate to continue the Seer bloodline. Duty always comes before her heart…at least that’s what her parents taught her. When she finds herself wanting someone who is considered off-limits, P.J. is forced to question everything she believes. 

As if navigating her love life isn’t complicated enough, P.J. finally receives a vision—of a threat to her world that only she can perceive. But no one will believe a fledgling Seer’s warnings. With nowhere else to turn, she may decide to trust a stranger with her life, her world, and maybe even her heart.

  

Cynical-Optimist. Chocolate-holic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self-Imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Geek. Animal Lover. Writer…are just a few words to describe D.T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and two very spoiled GSDs.

Author Links:

Website

Twitter

Goodreads 

Facebook

Is that not a gorgeous cover? The colors, the shading, the reflection in the eye, just lovely. Quick, go add this to your TBR list so you don't forget about it between now and January.