In My Mailbox 85 + Weekly Wrap Up

In My Mailbox is when the book blog community shows off all the books they have received during the week. It was created by Kristi over at The Story Siren, and is now hosted by Gabrielle over at The Mod Podge Bookshelf.

The Books:

Won-
Tempestuous by Kim Askew & Amy Helmes

Gifted-
Love Is All You Need by Deb Caletti

Weekly Wrap Up:

Reviews:
A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris
Abandon by Meg Cabot

Memes/Posts:
Meg-A Readers Abandon by Meg Cabot Review

Blog Tours/Hops:
3:AM Kisses Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

Giveaways:
3:AM Kisses Tour: Giveaway

3:AM Kisses Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

3:AM Kisses by Addison Moore
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Synopsis: From the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Addison Moore

New Adult *Intended for mature audiences.

Baya Brighton is looking forward to her first year at Whitney Briggs University, new friends, dorm life, and finally being close to her brother again. Love is the last thing on the list, but when Baya meets her brother’s roommate she begins to have thoughts and feelings that make even her blush. 

Bryson Edwards has a secret he prefers buried in the past and long forgotten. He prefers loose girls, fast cars, and long nights working at the string of bars his family owns. When his roommate’s sister shows up on the scene, she’s far too innocent and sweet for him but he can’t shake Baya out of his mind and worse, it looks like she’s seeping into his heart as well. 

Baya seems determined to show her brother she’s not a little kid and equally determined to use Bryson’s body to prove her point. It’s been made pretty clear that Baya is off limits to Bryson but their undeniable sparks explode into a whole lot more than just a few 3:AM KISSES.

About The Author: 

Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading.

Links:
Amazon

Goodreads

Addison Moore's website

Addison Moore on Facebook

Addison Moore on Twitter

Excerpt:
“Baya,” he whispers, closing his eyes momentarily. “Don’t fall for me. I’m not worth it.” A tragedy plays out over his features that I wish I could understand.

“I think you’re more than worth it.” I pant. “Do you think I’m worth it?” If he says no then I’ll let this go, but there’s something special between us, and if I can’t deny it how can he?

“You’re worth everything,” he whispers, gently brushing the hair from my eyes. “It’s me—I’m not worth the risk.”

“Sometimes when you take a risk, great things happen—mountains move and you see exactly what you’ve been waiting for, right there, in front of you.” Hell yes I’m laying it on thick. “I think you’re worth the risk, Bryson.”

His breathing picks up. His heart thunders over my chest as if he were about to leap off a very tall building.

“I want you, Baya. I just don’t know how we’re going to do this.”

My body convulses. Crap. This is a lousy time for my G spot to applaud his efforts.

“Let’s start here.” I pull him in and Bryson crashes his lips to mine. His soft mouth tugs over me in an achingly slow manner. A moan gets caught in my throat, and a tingle rides between my thighs, exhilarating me all the way up to my belly button. My body quivers in a series of explosive waves, and I don’t fight it. I’m not sure if it’s possible to have an orgasm from simply being in his presence or if my hormones have chosen a heck of a bad time to short circuit, hell, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a proper orgasm due to the fact every other one was self-induced, but this feels otherworldly, magical in a damn illegal kind of way. Electrical currents are going off, neurons and synapsis are misfiring. An entire Fourth of July spectacular is happening in my body, and my girl parts are jumping up and down with elation—all because Bryson Edwards’ hot mouth is over mine.

I give another groan and push him into me harder until he caves and blesses my mouth with his tongue in long, strong, lingering sweeps. Bryson moves his hands slowly up my arms until he’s cradling my face in his hands, loving me with deep-throated kisses that I never want to end.

I run my hand up his shirt and my fingers move over his rippling abs, nothing but skin over granite. I touch down over each of his grooves as his skin blisters over the pads of my fingers.

“Baya,” he whispers, swiping his lips over mine. “We should talk about this—talk about us.”

His eyes glow an eerie paper white as he lingers above me.

In the distance, the hot spring gurgles and hisses. It expels into the night with its slow dancing fog, curling its vapor-like fingers as it calls us over.

“You’re right. I think we should talk about us.” I glance to the hazy pool of water. “In there.”

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meg-A Readers Abandon Review

Abandon by Meg Cabot
Publisher: Point
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
Book Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 304
Synopsis: New from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a dark, fantastical story about this world . . . and the underworld.

Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.

Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

My Review:

I bought Abandon by Meg Cabot from the Used Book Superstore and this is my honest review.

Abandon is about a girl named Pierce who cannot seem to get away from trouble, and death for that matter. That’s basically all I needed to know to be interested in this book. But for a little more background, Pierce recently died and came back which puts her in a different state than other humans, she’s been to the underworld a place that nobody else has gone.

I have to admit that the book was very slow in the beginning. I did not completely get pulled into the book until I was at least 100 pages in but after that 100 pages I got sucked in and everything got better from there. Back to the beginning though I just had a lot of questions, I feel like the book could have used a prologue or something of that effect to explain who Pierce was and some of her story because, I think thats why I had such a hard time getting into the story because I was really confused for awhile. Another reason I was so confused a lot in the beginning is because during the course of the book we were thrown into these flashbacks that ran sometimes for a while or were sometimes short, but there were so many that I found myself forgetting when we were back in present time.

When I finally got into it though, I loved it the characters were all great! Pierce was one of my favorite characters probably because of the fact that she died and came back but I mean who wouldn’t think that was cool? I also liked her cousin Alex for awhile but there were some parts in the story where I thought he was plain mean to Pierce and that wasn’t cool. Some other characters that I enjoyed were Pierce’s uncle Chris I feel like I liked him because I kind of connected with Pierce because I have an uncle thats in jail, so I know what the experience is like. Last but not least the famous John.. Now first I want to say that John is such a common name but out of all the books I have read I can’t remember one where one of the main characters name was John which I find pretty funny but oh well.

I feel like John should have his own paragraph just so I can rave about him. From the very beginning of the book he is so dark and mysterious, let me tell you that is my kind of guy. Lets just say he was a man of little words and I liked that quite a lot. There is I think two other books in this series? I’m really looking forward to more of John!

Something I found really unique and interesting was the Island that Pierce and her family were living on because, the background behind it was so interesting I liked learning about it a lot. One story that really stuck with me was the one we heard twice in the story about how there was a crazy hurricane back in the day and all the caskets that were under ground were washed up and thrown all over the place. That story gave me the chills and it still does everytime I hear it.

Overall I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would due to the tough time I had getting into it in the beginning. I must say though my final thoughts are that I absolutely cannot wait for book 2, because this book left some things unsaid!

Favorite Quote:

“Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

(This quote ran throughout the book so there wasn’t one specific page, but I found myself really enjoying this one quote so I had to reference it.)

Review: A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris

A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: August 6, 2013
Book Format: e-ARC
Number of Pages: 320
Synopsis: Alessandra D’Angeli is in need of an adventure. Tired of her sixteenth-century life in Italy and homesick for her time-traveling cousin, Cat, who visited her for a magical week and dazzled her with tales of the future, Alessandra is lost. Until the stars hear her plea.

One mystical spell later, Alessandra appears on Cat’s Beverly Hills doorstep five hundred years in the future. Surrounded by confusing gadgets, scary transportation, and scandalous clothing, Less is hesitant to live the life of a twenty-first century teen…until she meets the infuriating—and infuriatingly handsome—surfer Austin Michaels. Austin challenges everything she believes in…and introduces her to a world filled with possibility.

With the clock ticking, Less knows she must live every moment of her modern life while she still can. But how will she return to the drab life of her past when the future is what holds everything she’s come to love?

My Review: 

I received an e-ARC of A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris from the publisher, and this is my honest review.

I can’t even begin to tell you how anticipated this sequel was for me. I read the first book My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century and adored it until the end. So you can imagine how excited I was to get this book and start reading! In book two we have the privilege of following Alessandra on her journey to the future (for her) America. 

What can I say about this book other that it was pure amazing! I was a little skeptical about having a book all about Alessandra but I’m glad I read it because Alessandra grew so much from book one to book two and I loved it. Imagine going from 16th century Italy to current time Hollywood I think it was. That’s definitely a huge change but Less managed to keep it together and I really admired her for that. 

I also loved being able to see a little bit of Lorenzo, and a lot of Cat in book two as well. I miss the relationship between the two of them from the first book but I find myself secretly enjoying Lucas and his role in A Tale of Two Centuries! Cat was more inspiring in book two than she was in book one and I say this because I saw her open up a lot and I enjoyed it. 

Austin Austin AUSTIN some people might have been like wow he’s a jerk in the beginning but nope I loved him from the page he was introduced right up until the end because yes I do chase the bad boys. I loved his role in the book so much he did so much for Alessandra from boiling her blood to making her open her eyes and enjoy life. 

I looked on Goodreads yesterday and found that there is going to be a book 3 which just makes me soooooo happy because I loved this book, dare I say I loved it more then book 1? Yes I did but only because of the ending. You’ll understand once you read the books trust me. A Tale of Two Centuries is a rock solid 5 out of 5 stars!

In My Mailbox 84

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi at The Story Siren, and is now hosted by Gabrielle at The Mod Podge Bookshelf. IMM is a weekly meme where we show off all the books we get throughout the week!

The Books:

For Review:
The Dollhouse Asylum by Mary Gray
Whisper Falls by Elizabeth Langston

Won (Nawanda Files)
Addicted To You by Becca & Krista Ritchie

Received from ARCycling
Gravity by Melissa West

There will be no Weekly Wrap Up this week because I have been absent for the last like week and a half. Don't worry I'm back now! :)

Peacemaker Blog Tour: Guest Post

Peacemaker by Eva Gerald

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Romance

Goodreads

Synopsis: Maya Voland doesn’t want to spend her senior year in the cold, isolated town of Shine, Vermont. Reeling from the death of her father and the discovery that her life is a carefully constructed set of lies, Maya wants to escape to a place where she can be invisible. 

The residents of Shine can’t let Maya leave. She’s too important to their cause. A manipulator by nature, Maya was born with an extraordinary ability to influence the emotions and actions of others. Shiners will go to great lengths to train her to use those gifts to further their agenda, before other, more sinister forces intercede.

Shea Knightly has been waiting most of his life for Maya to come back home to Shine. He, too, has powers of persuasion and he’s never encountered a girl who can say no to his stunning looks and overwhelming charm. He’ll pull out all the stops to bring Maya into the fold.

Now Maya must decide—is the intense attraction she feels for Shea reciprocated, or is he just feeding her more lies to draw her into the dangerous world of the Shiners? Even if there is something real between them, what price is she willing to pay to make his cause her own?

Author Links:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon

Guest Post:

Pros and Cons of Publishing by Eva Gerald

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to speak about my experience with publishing. Being a newbie author I don’t have a lot of experience yet, but I’m happy to share the ups and downs of my personal journey.

Publishing Peacemaker is a dream come true. I’ve been working towards this goal for many years and I consider it one of the biggest accomplishments of my adult life. It feels remarkable to have crossed the finish line with this book; to finally share it with the world.

Prior to publication I was investing huge amounts of time and creative energy on an activity that I was hoarding to myself. My family made sacrifices to provide me with the time to write even though I wouldn’t share the fruits of my labor with them.Publishing meant that I had tangible proof that my investment and their sacrifices were worthwhile. My published book now serves as a lesson for my kids that no matter how busy life becomes, you can and should always find time to pursue your dreams.

Publishing also meant vanquishing some old demons. I feared that I would never complete a book worthy of being read by an audience. As with many writers, I had the skeleton of a partially completed manuscript gathering metaphorical dust on a harddrive somewhere. That ghost taunted me relentlessly. Every time I felt too tired or too uninspired to continue writing, the old, incomplete novel stuck its tongue out and dared me to forge on. There was only one possible outcome this time—publication.

Having said all that, there are certainly cons to publishing as well. It’s scary. Putting my work out in the world and then encouraging critiques is downright ulcer inducing. I feel good about the book I’ve produced, but the reality is that not everyone will like it. I want to send a note to every reader that says “I worked really hard on this book, so please like it.” Instead, I have to steel myself to accept criticism and embrace that feedback as a mechanism for developing my skills as a writer.

It turns out that to be successful in the publishing world you need to know how to market your book. I didn’t fully appreciate this until after I had published. Some naïve part of me believed that if my book was good, it would sell itself. Unfortunately, there are a lot of great books out there that have never found a market. Some writers have mastered the art of marketing. I’m still working on it.

Overall, publishing Peacemaker has been a wonderful anduplifting experience. I would definitely do it again if given the choice. In fact, I hope to publish many more books in the future. The Peacemaker series has only just begun and I can’t wait to share the rest of Maya and Shea’s story with the world.

Peacemaker Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, August 19

Itching for Books

Tuesday, August 20 

Wonderland's Reader

Wednesday, August 21 

Books and Cozy Afternoon Teas  

Thursday, August 22  

Living in a Bookworld

Friday, August 23

Book Crook

Monday, August 26 

Mom With A Kindle

Tuesday, August 27 

Whimsically Yours

Wednesday, August 28 

Faerie Tale Books

Comfort Books

Thursday, August 29 

Punk's House of Books

Friday, August 30 

Brooke Blogs

The Cosplaying Librarian

Cover Reveal: Death is But a Dream by Erin Hayes

Good morning Bookies! Are you as excited as I am? We have a cover reveal for Death is But a Dream by Erin Hayes today, and I'm excited because I haven't had a Cover Reveal here on Comfort Books in awhile. So without further ado here is the cover!

Death is but a Dream by Erin Hayes

Release Date: Fall 2013

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Mythology 

Synopsis: Caught between life and death, all Callie wants is to live again.

Homicide detective Callie Saunders knows that death isn’t all pearly gates and angels. After being hit by a bus, she finds that it's the ancient gods and goddesses of Greek mythology who are in charge of everything.

So when Hades offers her a deal, she accepts. If she wants to be brought back to life, she’ll have to figure out who is trying to kill his son. But if she fails, both her soul and the world will be destroyed.

With the odds mounting against her, it’ll take everything she has within her to wake up from death. But the rules are constantly changing. And someone wants her to stay dead
Goodreads

Meet The Author:

Erin Gulyas is an advertising copywriter. Erin Hayes is her alter ego that writes book in her spare time. This is the blog of Erin Hayes.

 

Author Links:

Website

Goodreads

Twitter