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THE ART OF LAINEY by Paula Stokes Book Blast & Giveaway!

5/20/2014

http://www.booknerdtours.com/2014/nerd-blast-the-art-of-lainey-by-paula-stokes.html

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  Synopsis

  Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is gearing up to spend an epic summer with her amazing boyfriend, Jason, when he suddenly breaks up with her—no reasons, no warning, and in public no less! Lainey is more than crushed, but with help from her friend Bianca, she resolves to do whatever it takes to get Jason back.

And that’s when the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. With just one glance, they’re sure they can use the book to lure Jason back into Lainey’s arms. So Lainey channels her inner warlord, recruiting spies to gather intel and persuading her coworker Micah to pose as her new boyfriend to make Jason jealous. After a few “dates”, it looks like her plan is going to work! But now her relationship with Micah is starting to feel like more than just a game.

What’s a girl to do when what she wants is totally different from what she needs? How do you figure out the person you’re meant to be with, if you’re still figuring out the person you’re meant to be?



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paula Stokes is half writer, half RN, and totally thrilled to be part of the world of YA literature. She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri where she graduated from Washington University and the Goldfarb School of Nursing. When she’s not writing, she’s kayaking, hiking, reading, or seeking out new adventures in faraway lands. Paula loves interacting with readers! Find her online at www.authorpaulastokes.com or on twitter as @pstokesbooks.




Giveaway!

2 Winners will receive a Copy of The Art of Lainey+Swag by Paula Stokes.
--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

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Blog Tour: Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols (Review, Excerpt & Giveaway)

5/13/2014

http://www.itchingforbooks.com/2014/02/blog-tourbiggest-flirts-by-jennifer.html


About the Book:
Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want.

Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laid-back swagger. 


As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…


Series: The Superlatives #1
Release date: May 20th 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pre-order: AMAZON

Review:

Once upon a time Simon and Schuster had a series called Simon Romantic Comedies. They were cute, fun, short reads. Jennifer Echols wrote a few, but she also wrote books that had a more serious tone. Biggest Flirts combines the best of both worlds.

I’ve never hid the fact that I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Echol’s books. I love her style of writing; find her characters engaging, and the story plots fun to read. Biggest Flirts continues that trend.

I loved how independent and self-assured Tia, the main character, was. She also came across as very real. She is not your perfect main character who always says and does the right thing. She changes her mind, she drinks, and she hooks up with guys. I don’t often come across a main character who displays these characteristics, and when I do, I don’t usually like them, but Tia somehow pulls it off. I find Will to be another interesting character. He comes across as more of your typical female character in a YA book. He’s the one that wants a relationship, and not to just hook-up, he also very much embraces who he is, and what he wants. Even through their differences, I was rooting for them the entire time.

I also really enjoyed the plot of this book. The title Biggest Flirts, and the name of the series, The Superlatives, comes from your typical yearbook awards Girl Most Likely…etc.  Once Tia and Will are saddled with their respective superlative, the question becomes does the superlative need to define them? Will that be how the rest of the series shapes up? I do love a fast paced book, but this one almost verged on too fast. I almost felt like once it was over, that I may have missed something because it read it so fast. There may have been a chance to explore more background on the characters if it had been just a bit slower.

As far as the writing style, I loved it. I find all of the Author’s books to be incredibly readable. There is nothing really bogging this book down. The dialog was crisp and believable, and it just moved so quickly. Once I picked this book up, I just couldn’t put it down, and I attribute that to the writing style.

Overall, if you are looking for a fun light summer read, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. And really, if you have never picked up a Jennifer Echols book before, what are you waiting for? Go. Now. Read. They’re awesome!

Rating:

Excerpt:
"He unbuttoned my top button and put it through the proper hole, then fixed the next button, periodically looking up to make sure he wasn't about to get expelled for molesting me one button at a time.  He never rubbed me "accidentally" or undid more buttons than necessary at once, but the very act of letting him do this in public was enough to make chills race down my arms.
"I think we're sending each other mixed messages," he said.
"I think I've sent you a very clear message," I corrected him, "and you're choosing not to receive it."
His hands paused on the bottom button. "You mean you do like what I'm doing right now, but you don't want to date me."
"Date anybody," I fine-tuned that statement.  "See? you do get it."
Ms. Nakamoto called through her microphone, "Mr. Matthews, take your hands off Ms. Cruz."
 

About the Author:
Jennifer Echols was born in Atlanta and grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama—a setting that has inspired many of her books. She has written nine romantic novels for young adults, including the comedy MAJOR CRUSH, which won the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the drama GOING TOO FAR, which was a finalist in the RITA, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Book Buyer’s Best, and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults. Simon & Schuster will debut her adult romance novels in 2013, with many more teen novels scheduled for the next few years. She lives in Birmingham with her husband and her son. 
www.jennifer-echols.com | http://twitter.com/jenniferechols

Giveaway:

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LOVE, LUCY Book Blast, Guest Post + Giveaway

5/12/2014


I am so excited to be able to help spread the word that LOVE, LUCY by April Lindner is now available to pre-order at Amazon and The Book Depository. LOVE, LUCY releases in January 2015, but until then I am thrilled to share an awesome guest post from Lucy Sommersworth on the Top Ten Things she loves about Italy. It sounds like she had an amazing time and I can’t wait to hear all about it in January.

If you haven’t yet heard about this amazing-sounding book, there’s some information and places to find it online below. And if you haven’t yet met April Lindner, her details are also below.

This blast also includes a giveaway for an Amazon eGiftcard, so if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

About LOVE, LUCY


Title: LOVE, LUCY
Author: April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Release date: January 27, 2015

Available to pre-order now at Amazon and The Book Depository

Description:

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.



The Guest Post


The Top Ten Things I Love About Italy

By Lucy Sommersworth


10. Train stations. They make my heart beat a little bit faster. I especially love the departure signs lit up with the names of exotic cities. They make me want to pick a destination at random—Venice or Milan or Naples, basically any place I’ve never been before—and just jump on, trusting that some kind of wonderful adventure will be waiting for me when I hop off. I would do it too except for the fact that Charlene, the friend I’m traveling with, likes schedules and order. I could never talk her into doing something that reckless.



9. The language. Italian is so lush and musical. Not that I can speak it, exactly. I took Italian in high school, and I can remember just enough to say basic things like excuse me and I would like the Spaghetti Bolognese, please. But even just reading the street signs out loud makes me feel like a different version of myself—more worldly and glamorous. And even the most ordinary words, the ones that mean ATM or supermarket—sound glorious in Italian.

8. Italian men. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for dark brown eyes.



7. Window shopping. I could do it all day long. Window displays are different in Italy, quirkier and more colorful. I especially love the sparkling little jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio, the funky clothing store displays, and store windows full of colorful, exotic treats—marzipan fruit, and candied rose and violet petals.


6. Sidewalk cafes. Nobody minds if you linger forever over a single cappuccino, just soaking in the atmosphere and watching the people pass by.

5. Gelato. After a few hours, walking around Florence can make a person exhausted. Luckily, wherever you turn, there’s a glass storefront gleaming with refreshing gelato—a miniature rainbow-colored mountain range of it: raspberry, mango, lemon, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio—and all of it amazing.


4. Street Performers. Though Charlene insists they’re just begging and we shouldn’t give them our money, I can’t help myself. I love them all: street musicians, the people who draw chalk masterpieces in the street, the folks who dress up as statues and pose for tourists. I’ve even got a soft spot for mimes!


3. Riding on a Vespa. Please don’t tell my mom, okay? She would have a panic attack if she knew.


2. Pretending I’m Audrey Hepburn. Roman Holiday is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the reason I wanted to go to Italy in the first place. Audrey Hepburn plays Princess Ann, who has grown deathly bored with having to give speeches and act stiff and regal. On a stop in Rome she runs away, and wanders through the city pretending to be a commoner. Of course she falls in love with Gregory Peck. Like her, he’s pretending, acting like a nice, ordinary guy who just wants to show her around Rome, when really he’s a reporter with ulterior motives. He recognizes her, and plans to write a tell-all story about her for his newspaper.

I won’t spoil the ending. I’ll just add that if you’re planning a trip to Rome, you need to see Roman Holiday first. And then, if you happen to meet a gorgeous, dark-eyed stranger, maybe you can get him take you on a Roman Holiday tour, and you can pretend to be Audrey Hepburn the way I did.

1. The amazing people I met along the way. Swapping stories with other backpackers about our travels and misadventures. Vacation flirtations with dark-eyed strangers. And, just maybe, experiencing a real summer romance.




About April Lindner



April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.





The Giveaway


This blast includes a giveaway for a $15 Amazon eGiftcard to ONE winner.

++The giveaway is open to anyone who can accept Amazon eGiftcards from the U.S. store.

++The giveaway ends on May 26, 2014 at 11:59 p.m.


Just enter in the Rafflcopter below...
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Top Ten Tuesday (#58) (05/06/14)

5/06/2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
 

Top Ten Book Covers I'd Frame As Pieces of Art

Book covers are so interesting.  they have to convey the story and make you want to pick it up.  We judge so many books by the covers.  That being said, there aren't a lot of covers of YA books I would actually put on my wall.  Here are the one's that may have a chance.







Honestly, it's not my normal type of art, but I like the nature aspect of it.








I like the Georgia O'Keeffe look to this cover.


I love the cutout art of this cover.  It makes it even more special that the author designed it herself.


It doesn't really come out in this, but the cover of the hardcover is a really pretty cutout.