Altered by Gennifer Albin Chapter Reveal + Giveaway 31 Comments

If you do not know yet how much I loved Crewel you can read my review here (it has giraffe balls)! For the rest of you, you must know how excited I am to be on this chapter reveal tour for its sequel, Altered. On each stop, you will ge part of the 1st chapter until you've read it all! Plus, you get a chance to win an ARC!

*Altered, the sequel to Crewel, does not yet have a cover*

Altered Chapter One (Part 3)

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[...Continued from Part 1 at Bewitched Bookworms and Part 2 at Cuddlebuggery Book Blog]

“Clearly the fact that we are in some type of forsaken alternate reality is much less important than your grudge against me, so can we get this over with and move on?” Erik asks. He moves out of the shadows to face his brother. Standing there, they mirror each other, and for the first time I study them as brothers. I’d only just figured out the real reason they were cold to each other at the Coventry: they were both hiding that secret. They’re exactly the same height, something I’d not noticed before, but Jost is bulkier from his work at the Coventry. He’s dressed in casual work clothes, unlike Erik, whose suit, while wrinkly, is still smart. Erik’s hair brushes his shoulders and Jost’s is longer, but although they share the same unruly waves, Erik’s silvery hair is smoothly slicked into place. Jost’s wild dark locks look like you’d expect after as much action as we’ve seen. The one thing that’s exactly the same is their piercing blue eyes.

“Grudge?” Jost laughs, but there’s a hollowness to it. “You think watching my wife, our sister, our mother get wiped from Arras resulted in a grudge?”

“Then why are you here? What purpose does it serve to run to the Guild if you hate them so much for what they did to Rozenn?” Erik demands.

“That’s our problem.” Jost steps closer to him. “You’ve never understood. Even I knew why Rozenn’s brother and his friends were discontent. I know what the Guild is capable of, and so do you. How can you turn a blind eye? You’ve become one of them.”

“Jost, you were at the Coventry for two years, and I never once let it slip you were from Saxun.”

“It would have given away your own secret. You wouldn’t want those officials knowing you were a fisherman’s son,” Jost accuses.

Erik’s jaw tightens.  “I never once gave them a reason to suspect your motives, but I’ll be honest with you, I don’t understand what you were waiting for. I expected you to attack them, maybe even kill the Spinster who did it. Anything,” Erik says. “I wouldn’t have blamed you. I stood back, and you did nothing. I actually thought maybe you’d formed some type of twisted dependency on them.”

“That’s not it.” Jost sighs, and the lightest of lines remain on his forehead and around his eyes. “If you understood then you’d know I wasn’t looking for some quick, simple payback. I want to understand how the system operates.”

“How will that help you heal?” Erik demands. “What can you possibly gain?”

“Myself ? Not much. But understanding the system and getting the information into the right hands could do more damage.”

“So that’s it,” Erik says in a quiet voice. “You were plotting treason.”

“And killing Spinsters wouldn’t have been that?” Jost asks, responding to the allegation in his brother’s voice.

“Killing the one responsible would be reasonable,” Erik says. “But destroying the system would undermine the peace the Guild has established.”

“Peace?” Jost echoes with a laugh.

I think of the people who have been ripped, the neatly orga- nized proof in storage at the Coventry, the look of defeat on my father’s face as he tried to shove me into the tunnel the night the Guild came to claim me. No part of me wants to laugh.

Jost grabs my arm. “Ask Adelice. Ask her what it’s like to rip someone from Arras. Ask her if it’s peaceful for them.”

I open my mouth to protest being dragged into the middle of this, but Jost doesn’t wait for me to respond to his point.

“Or better yet, ask me, Erik. Ask me what it was like to see it happen.” Jost’s voice drops down and trails off. None of us speak. “I watched it. I saw her slip away piece by piece. I watched as they took her away from me.”

“I’m sorry,” Erik offers. He sounds sincere, but even I know his words are far from enough.

Jost shakes his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts, and looks out into the dark. “Rozenn was better than any of us. You or me. So was our mother.” He pauses. “And my daughter.” Erik’s shock registers like a slap across the face.

“Daughter?” he mouths. No actual sound comes, but the heaviness of the word presses on my chest, and judging from their expressions, they feel it, too.

“You missed out on a lot when you took off.” Jost’s words are dismissive, but he doesn’t look away from Erik.

“You could have telebounded me,” Erik insists. Now he’s the one who sounds accusatory.

“And what?” Jost asks. “You would have come to visit? You didn’t come when Dad got sick or I got married. I knew where we stood with you when you left to serve the Guild. Your family couldn’t help you move forward politically, so we were of no use to you.

“You wouldn’t have cared,” Jost continues. “You were busy cozying up to Maela, following her orders like the perfect Spinster’s errand boy. Just like you’ve been busy weaseling your way into Adelice’s heart.”


...Read more tomorrow over at The Book Cellar!

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Have not heard of Crewel yet? *gasp* Check what you're missing:

Crewel
Gennifer Albin

Series: Crewel World #1
Publication date: October 16th 2012
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Enter a tangled world of secrets and intrigue where a girl is in charge of other’s destinies, but not her own.

Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has always been special. When her parents discover her gift—the ability to weave the very fabric of reality—they train her to hide it. For good reason, they don’t want her to become a Spinster — one of the elite, beautiful, and deadly women who determine what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die.

Thrust into the opulent Western Coventry, Adelice will be tried, tested and tempted as she navigates the deadly politics at play behind its walls.  Now caught in a web of lies and forbidden romance, she must unravel the sinister truth behind her own unspeakable power.  Her world is hanging by a thread, and Adelice, alone, can decide to save it — or destroy it.

About the Author

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Gennifer's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

I like coffee. A lot. Writing gives me time to go get a cup without my kids. I like books as much as I like coffee, but it is easier to read with children hanging on you than drink coffee due to the threat of third degree burns. That's why coffee gets top billing in my intro: its unattainability.

I hold a Masters in English with a specialization in 18th century women's studies. While this is a highly marketable area of expertise, I stay home with my kids, which means my 3 year-old son uses correct grammar and doesn't burn down the house.

I have a ridiculously supportive husband who dreams of being included on a book jacket: "The author lives in Kansas with her husband, two children, and a Tuesday cat."

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Altered Chapter One Reveal Tour:

Monday, May 20—Prologue and Part One of Chapter One
Bewitched Bookworms

Tuesday, May 21—Part Two of Chapter One
Cuddlebuggery

Wednesday, May 22—Part Three of Chapter One
Xpresso Reads

Thursday, May 23—Part Four of Chapter One
The Book Cellar

Friday, May 24—Part Five of Chapter One
BookYAReview

Review: As The World Dies Untold Tales 3 by Rhiannon Frater 19 Comments

As The World Dies Untold Tales Volume 3
Rhianon frater

Genre: Adult Horror
Publication date: June 2013

In the third volume of the AS THE WORLD DIES UNTOLD TALES experience three terrifying tales of those who are forced to face the unrelenting and hungry walking dead.

Returning to Texas after celebrating his divorce in Vegas, Rune, a biker cursed with the ability to see ghosts, discovers that the world is being taken over by the hungry undead. Soon he realizes he will have to depend on all his abilities to survive not only the ravenous zombies, but the dangerous men lurking on the back roads of Texas.

Senator Paige Brightman abandoned the Madison Mall and its inhabitants to the hungry hordes, but her journey did not end there. Her attempt to reach the president’s safe haven called Central has far reaching ramifications for her and the people she abandoned.

The final in the three stories reveals the aftermath of the great battle in SIEGE as one woman faces the ultimate decision whether to live or die in a world of the undead.

-A copy was provided by Rhiannon Frater for review-

 
I'm fairly certain I'm repeating myself when I say I'm in love with this series, but really I don't care! This series rocked my world thoroughly and completely, quickly becoming one of my favorites of all time, if not the favorite. So it's no surprise that these untold tales garner just as much love from me. I rarely read novellas even when they're part of a series, but I'm telling you, these ones are absolutely worth it. They put the cherry on top of an already fantastic series. And for the love of god if this is really your first time hearing me rave about these books, see what you're missing here!

It may not have mattered for the other Untold Tales, but it's pretty important to have read the complete As the World Dies series before you jump into this one as it does have major spoilers of the finale. We begin with Rune's story, a peculiar character at that. Rune is a medium, and you can only imagine what he's had to deal with when most of the world has just been eaten by zombies. Being able to see ghosts gives us an exceptionally interesting POV, especially knowing how this ability helped not only him, but the whole fort as well. And being a character that only appears late in the series, it was great to see what he went through from the beginning of this zombocalypse. Mostly, I love how he has all the looks of a dangerous badass, but he has one of the biggest hearts you will meet in this story. Plus he is extremely intelligent (nothing is more annoying than stupidity in an end of the world scenario).

Following Rune is Senator Paige Brightman's story. GAH! That woman frustrates me to no end. It was all kinds of awesome to see how much of a self-centered bitch she really is, though, but only because you know what becomes of her. This story fills in the gap of what happened to her up until her demise. Her death was exactly what she deserved, and this short story makes it even more satisfying.

The most effective story of this collection for me was, by far, Emma's. Starting right before the zombies come, we see her living the simple life with her 3 year old son and we feel the love she has for him instantly. It's then that I knew my heart was in trouble. I could put myself exactly in her shoes having a carbon copy of her nudist little rascal of my own, which made this story intensely heartbreaking. Heartbreaking to the point where I was forced to hold on to this naive sense of hope that I knew was fruitless, only because it was easier than feeling the pain I knew was inescapable. This is yet another example of just how powerful this series truly is. I have rarely cared about fictional characters this much in my life, let alone in a zombie story. In such a short time, Emma was able to grab just a little corner of my heart. Her strength and fierce determination is simply unreal, plus knowing how important she will become to the characters I have loved throughout makes her an instant favorite. Her story also allows a glimpse into the fort after the ending of Siege which is honestly a real treat.

Every time I read these Untold Tales, all the feelings and raw emotions I had while reading the series get brought back to the surface, making them extremely nostalgic reads. Reading the final volume overwhelmed me with emotion; this time it's truly and irrevocably the end. It's crazy how much I continue to love these characters months later.

5 Hot Espressos

Find my previous reviews of the series, here!

Review: Rush by Eve Silver 34 Comments

Rush
Eve Silver

Series: The Game, #1
Genre: YA Science-Fiction
Publication date: June 11th 2013
by Katherine Tegen Books 

So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know?

When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.. 

-A copy was provided by HarperCollins for review-

Every single thing about this book annoyed me. It's not a terrible book in theory: the premise is interesting and it has a strong heroine, but its execution left me so incredibly irritated.

Rush starts with a bang when we're immediately lifted into a whirlwind of a plot, one that screams originality and awesomeness up ahead. It was for sure original; awesome, however, it is not. Let's begin with Jackson, and how his character was used in this book. When Miki is pulled into this strange "game" where she's told she's on a mission to rid the earth of aliens before humanity is extinct, Jackson acts as their leader of sorts. It's obvious that he knows everything we want to know, but all he does is dangle it in front of our faces, keeping his conversations eternally cryptic and secretive, filled with non-answers, though he makes sure to hint regularly at his insider knowledge. No that did not make me "intrigued" or "captivated", it made me want to cry because it was not possible for me to find this fictional character in real life so that I could stab his know-it-all self in the face. When Miki would ask him questions, it went a little something like: "So who's on that Committee?" "Committee members." (actual quote) *twitch*

When we finally do get some answers, mostly in info-dump form at random intervals, they were much too underwhelming for the annoyance I had to suffer through to get them. Firstly, the explanations were kind of weird--the kind of weird that makes you roll your eyes and yawn. Secondly, they're underdeveloped, as if after all this time they were still hesitant to try to make sense of this whole deal. Thirdly, they contains holes that left me just as annoyed as not getting any answers at all. For instance, there's no real reason for the whole thing to function like a video game. The hit points, their "health bars", the lingo, etc. It definitely gave the book somewhat of a unique spin, but to be honest all it did for me was make me unable to take any of it seriously.

Even if you ignore the odd love triangle and sudden insta-love, the romance is bland at best. I guess it's hard to like a guy who makes me want to shove my foot in his nose, so I didn't see Miki's appeal for him at all. Shouldn't she be as annoyed with him as I am? Bleh! As for the other guy, well, I finished this book not even 24 hours ago and I don't even remember his name. Lucas? I think? Even his role in the book is disappearing from my memory every minute. He was boring! Wait.. who are we talking about? Oh what about the epic bitch she calls her best friend? Oh.. Mah Gawd! If I have been violent so far in this review, I want to save the good stuff for Carly and slap her silly (which is most satisfying!) This drama queen would get pissed at Miki for growing hair. I could not stand her at all, nor did I find any of this drama necessary to the story. It did not help for character development, it did not help for adding friendship or values to the book; it was just unpleasant.

To end, the book's "huge" cliffhanger is one I have seen attempted several times, which at this point I see as a fruitless attempt at shock since we all know it will turn out fine by the end of the sequel (if not in the first 30 pages). It's the clichéd cliffhanger.

I can summarize this book in one word (I'm just that good!):

UGH!

2 Espressos

Cover Madness Giveaway Hop Sign Up 1 Comments

When Jenni of Alluring Reads and I got together to do a team giveaway we never thought it would get so popular. To this day those giveaways are the ones who have gotten the most entries and pageviews of all the giveaways I've ever posted on this blog. If you're not familiar with the giveaway you can have a look here. Basically what it is, is we find a bunch of fabulously covered upcoming books (we try to find recently revealed covers) and we throw a giveaway for a chance to win a pre-order of one of the pretties! We've done 3 very successful Cover Madnesses so far, and for the 4th we decided to invite you all along as well!


So this is the dealio:

• Sign ups will stay open for 6 weeks, to close on July 1st at 8:00AM EST
• The hop will run for 2 weeks from July 1st to July 14th, 2013
• Your giveaway post must be live by July 1st at 8:00AM EST (you may post up to 24hrs early)
• When your post is live, the linky will be updated with your direct post link.
• Your post must include the linky (or a link to either mine or Jenni's giveaway post where the linky will be located)
• You may handle your giveaway as you wish as far as how you collect entries and choose a winner (you may have more than 1 winner if you wish).

What you give away:

Through Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or any other means, you find your favorite newly covered book(s) to feature in this giveaway. You can pick just 1 book, or you can pick 30 and let the winner choose--that is up to you. The book cover must have been out for no longer than 6 weeks at the start of the giveaway. This means the winner will most likely be winning a pre-order of the book (we recommend using The Book Depository as it's free to ship anywhere, but you can use Amazon or any book seller, or you can wait until the book is released, buy it locally, and ship it to your winner).

Here is an example of how me and Jenni have done it in the past, feel free to follow the same format.

Want to participate in this awesome? Sign up below with your blog name and who your giveaway will be open to (Example: Xpresso Reads (INTL) and an email will be sent a few days ahead as a reminder and with the linky code, etc.

If you have any questions, ask away in the comments!

If you want to post the button on your sidebar to help spread the word you can use the code below:

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.xpressoreads.com/2013/05/cover-madness-giveaway-hop-sign-up.html" title="Xpresso Reads" target="_blank"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J76_aI4ALp8/UZhUelGHjtI/AAAAAAAAuRc/9TJdTjJdif0/s1600/CoverMadnessHopButtonShare2.png" alt="Alluring Reads" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

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After you've signed up, Tweet/Facebook about it so more people can join!

Stacking the Shelves (56) 34 Comments

Xpresso Weekly is my edition of Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews featuring the books I got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week.

This week at Xpresso Reads

Oh Em Gee not even 2 weeks before I leave for New York City! Actually, in 2 weeks from today BEA will be over! Who are you most excited to meet (authors)? For me it's def. Holly Black! Time to start packing soon, lovelies! Ok so holy crappers I have a lot of new sign ups for tours and events over at Xpresso Book Tours so go check that out and sign up for stuff! ;) And don't forget to enter the Dare You To prize pack giveaway that went up this week because it's pretty fantastic!

Reviews on the blog this week:

Stacking the Shelves

 (Click on covers or title links for Goodreads)
I received for review:

 -Everything Breaks by Vicki Grove
-Hidden by Catherine McKenzie


*Big thanks to Simon & Schuster, S&S Audio, All Night Reads, Penguin Books, and HarperCollins Canada for the pretties*


I was gifted
Due to Jenni (Alluring Reads)'s forgetfulness and shopaholicism, she found double copies of these on her shelves and she knew I wanted to read em so she sent them over! Thanks, love muffin! I love your blonde moments! :)

-The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
-Shine by Lauren Myracle


Have a great week!

Link me to your book haul! :)