The Space Between Tour: Promo Post + Giveaway

The Space Between by Victoria Smith
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Synopsis: When Drake started the night at his father’s campaign fundraiser, he never imagined he’d end it being conned into buying drugs on the West Side. Losing high-stakes poker has its consequences, but he’d repeatedly face them just to hear Lacey Douglas sing. Drake sees Lacey light up the stage, and he has to have her. But his intentions for being on her side of town turn out to be the reason he can’t.

Chicago native Lacey has dreams of the opera, but life has its obstacles. Lacey has come to know her hardships as part of living in the real world and accepts them fully. When Lacey meets the intense and invigorating Drake, a fire is lit inside her, unleashing those dreams again.

Two paths that should have never crossed prove to create the exact pairing the other needs. But when their worlds take time to catch up, everything they have is tested. Finding the space between the two sides that challenge them will be hard, but it’s the only place that will keep them together.

The Space Between is a new adult contemporary romance.

Meet The Author: 

Victoria H. Smith has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She puts it to good use writing romance all day. She resides in the Midwest with her Macbook on her lap and a cornfield to her right. She often draws inspiration for her stories from her own life experiences, and the twenty-something characters she writes give her an earful about it.

In her free time, she enjoys extreme couponing, blogging, reading, and sending off a few tweets on Twitter when she can. She writes new adult fiction romance in the sub-genres of science fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary, but really, anywhere her pen takes her she goes.

Guest Post: 

Six Words for THE SPACE BETWEEN

By Victoria H. Smith

1.

Differences – This book is all about them, and what one is willing to do to overcome them.

2.

Dreams – Lacey is in constant conflict with hers. She wants to fight for them, but often feels trapped. This is a drastic difference to Drake. He virtually has none and needs Lacey to force him to look at his life and figure out what he wants for himself.

3.

Passion – Passion occurs in so many ways here. Life goals, love, friendships. When one is passionate about something life is just so much grander.

4.

Adulthood – This story is about facing reality and coming into one’s own. The story is set in the summer after high school graduation. The characters make the transition between adolescence and adulthood that summer. Lacey has to deal with her mother’s sickness on her own. Drake is moving out for the first time and going to college. In both Drake and Lacey’s case, they have to deal with the world’s objections to their relationship. No one sugar coats things for them. They have to fight for what they want.

5.

Music – Music initially brings Drake and Lacey together and plays a part in their relationship throughout the entirety of the story.

6.

Believe – Holding true to what one believes is the foundation of the story and consistently plays throughout it as Drake and Lacey struggle to maintain a relationship.

Before you check out the giveaway don't forget to give credit where it is due which is AToMR Tours for putting together this lovely tour! Check out the tour schedule here 

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My Mailbox 70 + Weekly Wrap Up

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme created by Kristi over @ The Story Siren but newly hosted by The Mod Podge Bookshelf 

Review:
The Half Life Of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik
The Photo Traveler by Arthur J. Gonzalez 

Giveaway: (from Word Spelunking)
Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle


Weekly Wrap Up:

Reviews:
Requiem by Lauren Oliver 
The Half Life Of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik

Memes/Posts:
Teaser Tuesday

Blog Tours/Hops:
Just Like Heaven Tour: Guest Post

Giveaways:
None

Just Like Heaven Tour: Guest Blog

Just Like Heaven by Barbara Bretton 
Synopsis: Because love can happen anywhere . . .
Even in New Jersey!

A beautiful morning in early spring. What could possibly go wrong?

Just returned from a buying trip in England, Kate French was jet-lagged and exhausted and running on fumes. She was already running late for an appointment but a wave of dizziness forced her to pull into the shopping mall parking lot in search of a quick fix of caffeine and protein.

When the pain first hit, she ignored it and continued racing across the parking lot toward the food court. But within moments she realized something was terribly wrong as her wobbly legs gave out and she dropped to the ground. The last thing she remembered as she started to fade away was the guy in the Grateful Dead T-shirt who held her in his arms and promised he'd never let her go.

Mark Kerry didn't think of himself as a hero but the story of a Good Samaritan who had saved a woman's life in the parking lot of the Princeton Promenade was attaining the status of suburban legend. Determined to return a stack of documents that had been left behind when the ambulance swept her away, he called in some favors and tracked her down at home one week later.

The moment Kate saw him, the world and everyone in it disappeared. She knew his voice, the smell of his skin, the way his hands felt against her skin, the taste of his mouth, everything that mattered. All the things she would ever need to know about him.

And then she took another look . . . 

About The Author: 

Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries.

Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.

Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.

Barbara loves to spend as much time as possible in Maine with her husband, walking the rocky beaches and dreaming up plots for upcoming books.

www.Barbarabretton.com

http://barbarabretton.blogspot.com/

www.Facebook.com/barbarabretton

www.Twitter.com/barbarabretton

www.Goodreads.com/Barbara_Bretton

Guest Post: 

Comfort. Even the word makes me feel better. Who doesn't want more comfort in her life? Just Google the word and you'll find cookbooks, furniture, clothing, music, movies, books, and  much more designed for the specific purpose of bringing more comfort into our lives.

Here are some of my favorites.

Food - where would we be without the comfort of a plate of gooey, delicious mac and cheese? Cholesterol, be damned. I know I don't want to live in a world without mac and cheese. That and Spanish rice were the comfort foods of my childhood and I make them today when I want to bring my mother's memory a little closer.

BTW, how do you make your mac and cheese? I've discovered there are as many variations as there are families who love it. We always added Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, and a bottle of chili sauce (the seafood cocktail kind) to the cheese sauce. What's your secret?

TV - During stressful times, we indulge in what I call Laugh Therapy. Block out the worries and the sorrows, and dive headlong into TV Land and all of the classic sitcoms that never fail to make us laugh. The old Mary Tyler Moore Show. Bob Newhart, either with Suzanne Pleshette or the brothers Darryl. Taxi. Cheers. Seinfeld. M*A*S*H*. And if you're old enough, you've probably spent a few late, late nights watching scratchy black and white reruns of The Honeymooners. It doesn't matter which show makes you forget your troubles. Sometimes TV is the best invention of the 20th century.

Movies and Soundtracks - Writers can get a little strange about movies and music. We tend to use them as almost inspirational background noise when we write and certain movies and soundtracks become wedded in our minds to the book we were writing at the time.

My husband asked me the other day why I keep watching YOU'VE GOT MAIL when I've said a thousand times that I don't like it. To be honest, I don't have a good reason for him except that it makes me feel comforted . . . and makes me want to write. Same goes for FAR AND AWAY and its soundtrack. The second I hear the first note, my imagination kicks into gear and I dive into my work-in-progress as the rest of the world vanishes in a comforting blur.

And I won't tell you how many times I've lost myself in the comfort of NOTTING HILL, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY, and LOVE ACTUALLY. I have watched them so many times that I can recite the dialogue along with the actors.

Which, I guess, is part of the comfort zone they create.

Books - My husband doesn't reread books. Once he's done with them, he's done with them and on to something new and fresh.

Not me. When I love a book, I want to live inside it. I want to wrap it around me like a cashmere blanket and disappear.

Which, as you've probably guessed, means I reread.

A lot.

At least once every two years, I reread Larry McMurtry's MOVING ON and all of the late Laurie Colwin's novels and short story collections.

When I'm feeling sad, I turn to the deep comfort of Jan Karon's Mitford series. I'm neither a Southerner or an Episcopalian, but her stories about good people living good lives always make me feel better about humankind.

After 9/11, I turned away from our modern world of terrorism and deceit, and vanished into Bertrice Small's Skye O'Malley series of books. The world of Elizabeth I was filled with violence and deceit, too, but what a difference a few centuries can make.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that I am unabashedly in writerly love with the late Robert B. Parker and the here-and-now Lawrence Block. Every year or two, I read my way through the Spenser books, the Sunny Randalls, the Jesse Stones. I immerse myself in the lives of Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr and Keller. Reading Block and Parker is like a crash course in great writing but that's not why I do it. I read them over and over again because each time I discover something different in the stories. As my perspective changes with time, I bring more to the reading table and am able to appreciate their work in ways I couldn't have when I was younger.

What are your comfort touchstones? What books or movies or TV shows make you forget the world outside your door and make you smile?

Thanks for stopping by everybody! Be sure to check out Bewitching Book Tours which is where this whole tour started! :)

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted and created by Should Be Reading. What we do is share random teasers from the books we're reading. Anyone can join in but you have to follow these simple rules!

Rules:
1. Grab your current read
2. Flip to a random page
3. Share two sentences from somewhere on that page
4. Be sure not to share spoilers there evil! 
5. Also share the title and author so we can add it to our TBR list if we enjoy the tease! 

My Book:

Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Synopsis: Daisy Goodnight can speak to the dead. It’s not the result of a head injury or some near-death experience. She was just born that way. And she’s really good at it. Good enough to help the police solve the occasional homicide.

But helping the local authorities clear cold cases is one thing. Being whisked out of chemistry class by the FBI and flown to the scene of a murder/kidnapping in Minnesota? That’s the real deal.

Before the promotion can go to Daisy’s head, she’s up to her neck in trouble. The spirits are talking, and they’re terrified. There’s a real living girl in danger. And when Daisy is kidnapped by a crime boss with no scruples about using magic—and Daisy—to get what he wants, it looks like hers is the next soul on the line.

My Teaser:

He seemed unsurprised. "That's good to know, since I received a ransom demand today." (ARC-46)

I hope you enjoyed my teaser today! Don't forget to leave me links to yours as well :)

Review: The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik

The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik
Publisher: Pear Jam Books
Publication Date: October 28, 2011
Book Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 184
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Synopsis: A contemporary psychological mystery/thriller for young teens.

Playing second fiddle to a 'missing, presumed dead' sister is soul-sucking for fifteen year old Ryan. As he tries to move on with his life he begins to appreciate just how difficult growing up can be. And now there's a stranger watching him. Will his family ever be whole again? Or did Mallory light the fuse that will blow it apart forever.



My Review: I received The Half Life of Ryan Davis by Melinda Szymanik for review from Readers Say Reviews, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

I literally just finished this whole book in one sitting, that right there should tell you to go find the book and read it right away! The Half Life of Davis is about a young boy named Ryan whose sister Mallory has recently gone missing. When the book starts it has been three years since her disappearance and everyone assumes that she is dead, which is probably the easiest thing to assume instead of hoping for her to come back everyday. Anyways ever since she’s been gone Ryan’s mom has been desperate for Mallory to come back, it gets so bad that she literally starts comparing everything Ryan and his younger sister Gemma do to their older sister which as you can imagine get’s really unbearable for them.

I have to say I really enjoyed the story of Ryan's life after his sister's disappearance. At first I thought that it would depress me because the book would just be a sob story about her being kidnapped, but it was not at all and I am happy about that. Ryan seems like a normal teenage boy he has his best friend Alex and his girlfriend Kim to stand by him yes he has his problems with both these people but what teenage boy doesn’t? But there was a lot more to Ryan than meets the eye, he is having some crazy problems at home dealing with his crazy mother and I don’t blame him for feeling the way he does during the book.

Let’s just talk about Ryan’s mother for a minute. I understand that she was upset about losing her oldest daughter but even so she was an absolutely terrible mother to her two remaining kids. In the beginning of the book her attitude seemed bearable because of the circumstances but as the book went on I grew more and more disgusted with the way she was treating Ryan, I felt very sorry for him. I almost wish I could have jumped in the book and screamed at her myself!

I obviously am not going to tell you what happens in the book, but I must say that I really did love how brave both Ryan, and Gemma and even Mallory was and you’ll see what I mean after I read the book. Overall it gets a 5 out of 5 stars I will definitely check out more books by this author in the future!

View all my reviews

Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Requiem by Lauren Oliver
Publisher:
Publication Date:
Book Format:
Number of Pages: 
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Synopsis: They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.
My Review: I Bought Requiem by Lauren Oliver off of Amazon to read and share my honest review. Requiem is the continuation of the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver, it is the third and final book in the trilogy. Taking that into consideration I obviously cannot share every detail because it is the last book but I will share what I can.

I enjoyed the plot in this story because there is not just one place. Since there are two point of view’s in the book, the plot bounces back and forth between Lena’s hometown of Portland, and then the wilds. The more interesting chapters in my opinion were the ones in the wilds, and the reason I say this is because whenever you were with the invalids there was never a dull moment something was always happening. The chapters in Portland kind of annoyed me because I got bored with them so quickly but some of them did make the story.

I did not enjoy Lena’s character in the first book Delirium but since then in the second book Pandemonium and now in the last book Requiem her character has really developed into someone that I enjoyed reading about. She no longer seems weak and unable to speak her mind, which is good because watching her sit there and take orders and mope around in the first book got old quickly. We saw more of Hana (Lena’s best friend from Delirium) in this book as well, now I cannot really tell you much about her because it will ruin what you find out about her but lets just say she has changed as well since the first book, but right now I am not quite sure if she changed for the better or for the worst.

A character that we met in Pandemonium also showed up as well as we all knew he would and that is Julian whom you will know if you read the second book. I enjoyed his character very much he starts to branch out and be adventurous which I think surprised Lena as much as it did me. Lets talk about Alex for just a second (this is not a spoiler if you read Pandemonium so do not worry!) I have to say that even though I fell in love with Alex in the first book I absolutely hated his character throughout this whole book. Everybody has definitely changed in their own ways but Alex changed in awful ways!

Overall the story was great seeing people fight for what they believed in throughout this whole trilogy is very inspiring. It shows that no matter what people know the difference between right and wrong and they knew that what the society was doing to these people was very wrong. The book gets a 4 out of 5 stars and I cannot wait to pick up more of Lauren Oliver’s books!

View all my reviews

In My Mailbox e-book edition #16 + Weekly Wrap Up

In My Mailbox was created and is hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren, this is a weekly bookish meme where we show off the books we've gotten every week! These are my books for the week :)

Also Known As by Robin Benway

Synopsis: Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.

Notes From Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

Synopsis: They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death. 

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.

Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Synopsis: Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. 

In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

Exiled by M.R. Merrick

Synopsis: Chase Williams is a demon hunter in the Circle, or at least he was supposed to be. On his fifteenth birthday, Chase stepped up to the altar to claim his elemental power, but it never came. Elemental magic is passed down to a hunter through the bloodline, but on Chase's birthday, the bloodline stopped. 

Exiled without the Circle's protection, Chase has spent two years trying to survive a world riddled with half-demons and magic. When he has a run in with a frightened and seemingly innocent demon, he learns the Circle's agenda has changed: the Circle plans to unlock a portal and unleash pure-blood demons into the world. Vowing to stop them, and knowing he can't do it alone, Chase forms a reluctant alliance with Rayna — a sexy witch with an attitude and a secret. 

In their attempt to stop them, Chase and Rayna find themselves in the middle of the Circle's plan, leaving one of them to decide what their friendship is worth, and the other's life depending on it.

Weekly Wrap Up: 

Reviews:

Next Summer by Hailey Abbott

What Color Is Monday? by Carrie Cariello

Memes/Posts:

It's Monday What Are You Reading? 

Teaser Tuesday

Waiting On Wednesday

Blog Tours/Hops:

None

Giveaways: 

None