Showing posts with label Top Ten List. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Ten List. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Blog Tour: BERSERKER by Emmy Laybourne | Top Ten List + Giveaway!


Hello everyone!
Welcome to the blog tour for 
BERSERKER by Emmy Laybourne! 
Today you can learn all about this fabulous new novel, find out what authors Emmy Laybourne would love to be able to work with and enter to win a giveaway for a copy of the book!
Enjoy!


Berserker by Emmy Laybourne 
Series: Berserker (Book 1) 
Hardcover: 352 pages 
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (October 10, 2017) Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1250055202 
ISBN-13: 978-1250055200


Are Hanne's powers a gift from the old Norse gods, or a curse?


Her brother Stieg swears their powers are a gift from the old gods, but Hanne Hemstad knows she is truly cursed. It's not Stieg's fault that their father is dead, their mother has left, and their brother Knut has been accused of a crime he didn't commit.


No, the fault lies with Hanne and her inability to control her murderous "gift"--she is a Berserker. When someone she loves is threatened, she flies into a killing state. The siblings must leave Norway for the American frontier or risk being brought to justice.

Aided by a young cowboy who agrees to be their guide, Hanne and her siblings use their powers to survive the perilous trail, where blizzards, wild animals, and vicious bounty hunters await.

Will they be able to reach their uncle, the one man Hanne believes may be able to teach her how to control her drive to kill? With Berserker, Emmy Laybourne, the author of Monument 14, presents her vision of an American west studded with Viking glory.
You can purchase Berserker at the following Retailers:
        

Praise for BERSERKER
"Emmy Labourne deftly melds Viking lore with the American West and creates something wholly new, a journey filled with heart-pounding suspense and surprising tenderness. Loved!"―Danielle Paige New York Times-bestselling author the Dorothy Must Die series

"
Berserker combines the magic of Norse mythology with the thrill of the American West with staggering results. Startlingly original, unputdownable, and electrifying." ―Kass Morgan, author of New York Times bestseller The 100


"A completely winning, romantic, and heart-wrenching historical fantasy. Your pulse will race from page one of this rich, rugged adventure of a book."―Alyson Noel, New York Times-bestselling author of The Immortals series

"Berserker embraces the beautiful brutality of both Viking lore and Frontier tales, and it does so without resorting to tired tropes or toxic masculinity. This is a brilliantly unexpected fusion of cowboys and old gods―intense and gritty and yet surprisingly tender―but the real strength of Emmy Laybourne's writing is that, for all their superhuman abilities, her characters are so very human."―William Ritter, author of the New York Times-bestselling Jackaby series

Praise for EMMY LAYBOURNE
“Simultaneously terrifying, hilarious, and action-packed, Sweet is a wild ride that holds up a warped mirror to our society. I loved it from the first line to the last.” ―Marie Lu, author of Legend and The Young Elites on Sweet

“Frighteningly real . . . Riveting.” ―The New York Times Book Review on Monument 14

“A tense, claustrophobic, and fast-paced thriller.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review of Monument 14

“Pretty darn breathless.” ―Booklist on Sky on Fire


Top Ten authors I’d like to work with by Emmy Laybourne
  1. David Levinthan.  I love his premises.  They're so clever and inventive and yet you never feel for a minute like you're reading a high concept book. They never feel gimmicky in the slightest bit. His books are always so deep and moving. I’m a huge fan.

  1. Jason Reynolds. I’m blown away by the heart in his books and the language! Reynolds writes and you hear the characters talking and (this is important)  you love them. I read Ghost in one sitting, in my car, in the parking lot of the bookstore. That’s how good this guy is.

  1. I'd love to work with Kristin Cashore.  Heck, I would just like to have lunch with Kristin Cashore.  I would even just like to be on line for the bathroom with Kristin Cashore! Her world building, her characters, her sense of drama -- she is the master. I admire the Graceling series endlessly.

  1. Joe Abercrombie.  Man, oh man, have you read Joe Abercrombie?  He writes adult fantasy set in a Viking inspired world. Wow, this guy can write a battle scene.  I read ALL his books this summer. He’s got 5 or 6 and they’re each 400+ pages long.

  1. Robin McKinley.  Oh, I would just like to sit at her feet and massage her ankles and maybe I would learn something from writing just by massaging her ankles.  Wait. That's really weird.  If she reads this she's going to be really uncomfortable.  Okay, forget the ankle thing. Maybe I could be her assistant. I feel like I could soak up a lot of wisdom from her.

  1. Margaret Atwood.  Margaret Atwood is to me just one of the most brilliant writers of all times -- and that she’s writing now? It’s so exciting.  Atwood sees our world so keenly and can convey the complexity of what she perceives.  Her word-smithing is electrifying.  Each sentence in her books feels like poetry but not kind of froufrou overwritten poetry that makes you feel like you've been put at an arm's distance -- the kind of poetry that makes you remember you are alive.  

  1. Stephen King.  Oh my God.  Stephen King.  The maestro.  I feel like if you were collaborating with Stephen King it would be like being a passenger in a car with the brake lines cut.  You would just careen along smashing down signposts and taking corners on two wheels.  That would be a hell of a joyride.  

  1. Who else?  Elmore Leonard.  Oh my God.  It would so cool to work with Elmore Leonard.  I'm not worthy at all but man he knows so much about character and his writing is so lean and delicious.

  1. A combo -- I met Dave Barry and Ridly Pearson on a panel at Yallwest a few years ago and we really hit it off.  I would like to collaborate with those guys.  I think we could have a lot of fun together.  They were really outrageously funny but also very kind, respectful and professional at the same time.  

  1. Marie Lu.  Marie Lu.  The thing you have to know about Marie Lu is that she is absolutely the nicest person working in Young Adult literature bar none.  She is kind and thoughtful, funny, gracious, generous, and don’t even get me started on her talent, which appears to be limitless! She has terrific ideas and executes them flawlessly. We’d have quite a bit of fun, me and Marie.


Emmy Laybourne is a novelist, screenwriter and former character actress. She is the author of the upcoming release BERSERKER ("You will love Emmy Laybourne's vision of an American west studded with Viking glory." - Hypable.com), as well as the MONUMENT 14 trilogy ("Frighteningly real… riveting" - NYT Book Review, Editor’s Choice) and the novel SWEET (“A gripping action-adventure survival story” – VOYA, rated Perfect Ten). 


Before her life as a novelist, Emmy performed original comedy on Comedy Central, MTV and VH1; and acted in the movies "Superstar," "The In-Laws" and "Nancy Drew," among others. Emmy lives outside New York City with her husband, two kids and a flock of 9 nifty chickens.


--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

- 4 Winners will receive a Copy of BERSERKER by Emmy Laybourne.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Monday, March 20, 2017

Book Blitz: Birthright by Jessica Ruddick | Top Ten List + Giveaway!

Welcome to the book blitz for 
Birthright by Jessica Ruddick! 
Enjoy!


Birthright
by Jessica Ruddick
Genre: YA Supernatural
Release Date: March 20th 2017


  

How do you live with yourself when you decide who dies?

Ava Parks would have killed for an iPod for her sixteenth birthday. Anything would have been better than coming into her birthright of being a seeker for the Grim Reaper, an arrangement made by her fallen angel ancestor in exchange for his re-admittance to heaven. And she isn’t just any seeker—she finds souls that have the potential for becoming angels and sentences them to death. A year and two souls into her role as a seeker with her conscience overflowing with guilt, Ava comes up with a plan to thwart the system. When it goes awry, she is forced to submit the name of a classmate, Cole Fowler, an ornery, rough around the edges guy who always seems to come to her rescue, whether she likes it or not. Her feelings for Cole prompt her to intervene, and she saves him from death, upsetting the Grim Reaper’s agenda. 

While Ava schemes to find a way to save Cole, she learns he has some secrets of his own. She lets him believe he is protecting her, and not the other way around, until a final showdown with the Grim Reaper forces Ava to make choices Cole may never forgive.

Birthright can be purchased at any of the following retailers:



Top Ten Books/Series You Should Read (in no particular order)
**Keep in mind I have a master’s degree in English literature and I was an English teacher for thirteen years.
  1. Shakespeare’s plays, specifically Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. You’d be surprised how relevant these works are today even though they were written four hundred years ago. Also, people often refer to Romeo and Juliet as a love story. Not really. It’s a tragedy about two lust-driven teenagers.
  2. The Harry Potter series. Do I even need to explain this one? ☺
  3. 1984. This book is another one of those that remains relevant even though it was written decades ago. There are still traces of it in pop culture today. Big brother, anyone?
  4. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I absolutely love these books. I’m a little bit obsessed, actually. They made me laugh, cry, and everything in between.
  5. J.D. Robb’s In Death series. A neighbor I babysat for introduced me to these way back when I was a young teenager and I still enjoy them now.
  6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Some consider this the first romance novel. Isn’t that reason enough to read it?
  7. The Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series by Charlaine Harris. These are a fun read. I also loved the TV show. The first season followed the first book pretty closely, but after that it veered off dramatically. Both are excellent in their own right, though.
  8. Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series. There are thirteen books in all and it’s complete. (I read so fast I prefer a series to be complete when I start so I don’t have to wait.) There are also various novellas and short stories. The series is unique in that the narrators change from book to book, which keeps it fresh.
  9. Indie author Kate L. Mary’s Broken World series. Kate is actually a friend of mine and these books are addicting. They read like a TV show, similar to The Walking Dead. Full Disclosure: I don’t actually watch that show because it would give me nightmares! But anyway, the series is well written and I devoured them.
  10. Rachel Vincent’s Shifter series. This series is complete at six books. It was her first series and has been out for a while now. They were actually new adult before new adult became a thing.
So I know I’m forgetting about a million great books that deserve to be on this list, but these are the first ten that came to mind. The good news is that a lot of them are series, so I actually managed to sneak in over a hundred books! Pretty sneaky, right? ☺

   
Jessica Ruddick is a 2014 Golden Heart finalist for her new adult novel, Letting Go, which was inspired by her own college experiences. She lives in Virginia and is married to her college sweetheart—their first date was a fraternity toga party (and nothing inspires love like a toga, right?). When she doesn’t have her nose in a book or her hands on a keyboard, she can be found wrangling her two rambunctious sons, taming two rowdy but lovable rescue dogs, and battling the herd of dust bunnies that has taken up residence in her home. To learn more about Jessica, please visit her website at www.jessicaruddick.com.

Enter to win a Kindle copy of the Author’s first award-winning book, 
Letting Go.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thursday, March 9, 2017

Blog Tour: YOU CAN'T HIDE by Dan Poblocki | Top Ten List + Giveaway!

Welcome everyone to the Official Blog tour for 
 YOU CAN'T HIDE by Dan Poblocki
In this post, you can read all about the book and the author as well as enter a giveaway for copies of the book! Enjoy!


Title: You Can't Hide
Author: Dan Poblocki 
Series: Shadow House (Book 2)
Hardcover: 224 pages
Genre: Middle Grade, Paranormal, Horror
Publisher: Scholastic (December 27, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0545925517
ISBN-13: 978-0545925518


Shadow House will find you . . .


Poppy, Marcus, Dash, Dylan, and Azumi are all trapped within Shadow House, a sinister estate where past and present intertwine. As they fight to find a way out, the kids think the ghosts of the house are the greatest danger they face. Little do the kids know it's the secrets they're each hiding that will prove even more lethal.



They're going to have to come face to face with their fears if they stand any hope of escaping the house alive. Is there anyone or anything in the house they can trust? Or is all hope disappearing, too . 


Enter Shadow House . . . if you dare.

BONUS: Step inside Shadow House with the free app for your tablet or phone! Each image in the book reveals a haunting in the app, where the choices you make determine your fate.
You can purchase You Can't Hide at the following Retailers:
        

Praise for YOU CAN'T HIDE

"Shadow House has everything I love—strange characters, magic and the supernatural, endless danger and adventure—and a mystery I dare any reader to try to solve". -- R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps

Praise for The Book of Bad Things

"Ghostly... grotesque... eerie..." -- Booklist

"Poblocki's return, full of mystery, monsters and ghosts, is sure to satisfy his fans. Old-school, John Saul-style horror." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Fun and creepy in all the good ways." -- VOYA

Praise for The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection

A Junior Library Guild selection

"The social dramas mesh well with the supernatural elements... Poblocki creates a real sense of suspense." -- Booklist

"Poblocki creates danger by not pulling punches. An atmospheric, creepy ghost story best read at night." -- Kirkus Reviews


Top Ten book classics you'd like to read
To my chagrin, I admit that I still haven’t read:
  • 10.  The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
  • 9.  Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  • 8.  Dracula – Bram Stoker
  • 7.  The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
  • 6.  Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
  • 5.  We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
  • 4.  Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Baldwin
  • 3.  Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  • 2.  Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
  • 1.  A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin  

Dan Poblocki is an American author of mystery and horror novels for young people. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. During his pre-teen years, his family moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Dan currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with two scaredy cats. 


Dan graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in theater. Subsequently, he toured the United States playing ultra-challenging roles such as Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Shoemaker in The Shoemaker and the Elves to packed houses filled with literally thousands of screaming children. (He hopes they weren’t screaming in fear.)



Dan ended his promising acting career to focus on other endeavors. While exploring various artistic options, he held a number of jobs in New York City including: a floral groomer, an audience-wrangler for a popular game show, a computer analyst, a chemotherapy-unit assistant, and a traveling bathing suit sales-dude. 

That’s right. A traveling bathing suit sales-dude.

Dan now writes full time. He's probably working on something new this very minute!

--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

- 7 Winners will receive a Copy of You Can't Hide (Shadow House #2) by Dan Poblocki



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