Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Desert Rice/Desert Flower by Angela Scott (Book Reviews)





Welcome to the Virtual Book Tour of Desert Flower presented by Reading Addiction Blog Tours - February 18 - March 15!

February 18 - Reading Addiction Blog Tours - Meet and Greet
February 19 - Books and Needlepoint - Review
February 20 - Bean Counting Mommy - Review
February 22 - Snifferwalk - Review
February 23 - Andi's YA Books - Review/Interview
February 24 - The adventures Within - Review/INterview
February 25 - Author Ever Leigh - Review
February 26 - My Reading Addiction - Review
February 28 - 
March 1 - Queen of All She Reads - Review/interview
March 2 - Doodle's Book Blog - Review
March 3 - Reviewing Shelf - review
March 4 - Must Read Faster - Review
March 5 - 
March 6 - Oh! The Books That You'll Read - Review
March 7 - 
March 10 - A Bibliophile's Thoughts - Review
March 11 - My Neurotic Book Affair - Review
March 12 - My Cozie Corner- Review
March 13 - Book Maven - Review
March 13 - My Seryniti - Review
March 14 - Kaisy Daisy Blog - Review
March 15 - Taking it One Page at a Time - Review/Interview
March 15 - RABT Reviews - Review







Desert Rice
Desert Flower


About Desert Rice: Samantha Jean Haggert is a beautiful twelve-year-old girl—but no one knows it. All they see is an awkward boy in a baseball cap and baggy pants. Sam’s not thrilled with the idea of hiding her identity, but it’s all part of her older brother’s plan to keep Sam safe from male attention and hidden from the law. Fifteen-year-old Jacob will stop at nothing to protect his sister, including concealing the death of the one person who should have protected them in the first place—their mother.

Sam and Jacob try to outrun their past by stealing the family car and traveling from West Virginia to Arizona, but the adult world proves mighty difficult to navigate, especially for two kids on their own. Trusting adults has never been an option; no adult has ever given them a good reason. But when Sam meets “Jesus”—who smells an awful lot like a horse—in the park, life takes a different turn. He saved her once, and may be willing to save Sam and her brother again, if only they admit what took place that fateful day in West Virginia. The problem? Sam doesn’t remember, and Jacob isn’t talking.


About Desert Flower: Bodies have a canny way of finding Samantha Jean Haggert. The first, the dead body of her mama. The second, a naked man in the middle of the Arizona desert. For Sam, dealing with one dead body in her lifetime is more than unfair. Two, is downright cruel.

Seven years after running from West Virginia, Sam's now a young woman of nineteen, trying to put the pieces of her life together with the help of her family—Jacob, Boone, and Laura. But the naked man in the desert spirals her world out of control, resurfacing past hurts, revealing old secrets, and pitting her between two men who via for her heart. Carson, her friend, her first kiss, and the one man who knows everything about her past and loves her despite it. And Turner, the stranger who knows nothing, but who excites and frustrates her all at once. 

When bad choices made as a child leads to more bad choices as a young adult, Sam finds herself at a crossroads and is forced to face her demons head on if she plans to have any future at all—with Carson, with Turner, or with anyone. But fixing the wrongs of the past takes time, and learning to forgive herself is damn near impossible.




Buy Links 
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iTunes

Tori's Thoughts: I read Desert Rice in preparation for reading Desert Flower and am glad that I read them in order.  The first book gave me some background and insight into the story that may not have had quite the same punch without reading it.  I liked seeing the strong relationship between Jacob and Sam evolve - in the first book Sam is only twelve, but is wise beyond her years due to her circumstances.  She has lived through sexual abuse, betrayal, murder, but has also learned how strong family bonds can be, even if they are not related by blood. 

 Desert Flower starts out seven years later and her relationship with Carson (a boy who had become her protector in Desert Rice) has changed into a physical one.  Feeling confused, days later she also sleeps with Turner.  This creates one very interesting love triangle.  

I enjoyed that Jacob was still so supportive of Sam, even though he knew about both men in her life.  You also got to learn more about Laura and Boone in this book - they had taken them in in Desert Rice and without owing anybody any obligation have adopted them as their own.  In Desert Flower this relationship solidifies and you see what great people they really are.  

The pace of the book was consistent throughout Desert Rice and Desert Flower.  The story would move along over a period of days and then jump ahead a few weeks - which was confusing at first, but then I came to expect the jumps in time.  This wasn't really my style of book, as I really enjoy fantasy and sci-fi - but I found myself very involved in the story and did not want to stop reading.  I have a feeling there is a third book that could come out of this story.  My mom just told me that she has written a Zombie series and I am really looking forward to reading those!

REVIEW BY TORI! 
(Video added by her proud mom. . .  seemed like a good theme song for these books!)


~I received complimentary ecopies of these books from Reading Addiction Blog Tours in exchange for my unbiased review.~

About the author: I hear voices. Tiny fictional people sit on my shoulders and whisper their stories in my ear. Instead of medicating myself, I decided to pick up a pen, write down everything those voices tell me, and turn it into a book. I’m not crazy. I’m an author. For the most part, I write contemporary Young Adult novels. However, through a writing exercise that spiraled out of control, I found myself writing about zombies terrorizing the Wild Wild West—and loving it. My zombies don’t sparkle, and they definitely don’t cuddle. At least, I wouldn’t suggest it.

I live on the benches of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with two lovely children, one teenager, and a very patient husband. I graduated from Utah State University with a B.A. degree in English, not because of my love for the written word, but because it was the only major that didn’t require math. I can’t spell, and grammar is my arch nemesis. But they gave me the degree, and there are no take backs.

As a child, I never sucked on a pacifier; I chewed on a pencil. I’ve been writing that long. It has only been the past few years that I’ve pursued it professionally, forged relationships with other like-minded individuals, and determined to make a career out of it.

You can subscribe and follow me on my website, where I blog obsessively about my writing process and post updates on my current works. I’m also on Twitter and Facebook, but be forewarned, I tweet and post more than a normal person.

You can connect with Angela at the following places:
Website
Twitter
Facebook


Desert Rice
Publisher/Publication Date:  Evolved Publishing, June 2012
ISBN: 9781622538546
225 pages


Desert Flower
Publisher/Publication Date: Evolved Publishing, Jan 2013
ISBN: 9781622538607
216 pages


2 comments:

Angela Scott said...

Thanks so much for hosting me reading both books. I really appreciate that. And WOWZER! Tori, what a voice! You're mom has every right to be proud--very, very good. So beautiful.

Lane Diamond said...

Wowzer! I'd say that's some heartfelt inspiration. Nice.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...