Book Blast, Giveaway and Scavenger Hunt: Dawn of the Apocalypse by E.S.P.

Dawn of the Apocalypse

by E.S.P.

Publisher: Mind Candy Media

Publication Date: Aug 9, 2013

Post-Apocalyptic, YA

January 1, 2000.

May 21, 2011.

December 21, 2012

These are just a few of the days humans prophesied as bringing catastrophic events that would end the world. We predicted nuclear warfare. Drastic climate change. A call from God.

We were wrong. 

Cue the gargoyle invasion—laboratory bred mutants designed to slaughter humans. When the government goes AWOL and gargoyles are swarming by the hundreds, it's up to the citizens of the United States to regroup and save themselves. 

Meet Cliff Matthews, a teenage boy separated from his entire family with the exception of his younger sister, whom he is desperate to keep alive. Along the quest to save their lives, he encounters people who aren't all that they seem. Everyday's a battle, but if he can't trust his own species, where does that leave his family? 

And we can't forget the man who may be willing to sacrifice Cliff's life, if it means world domination.

In terms of doomsday, no one could've seen this coming. The dawn of the apocalypse…

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About the author:   Being the daughter of an accomplished author, E.S.P. grew up listening to stories and telling her own to classmates. After writing for several years and even publishing some short works, she finally decided to take the plunge to write (plus finish!) a full length novel. Thus, Dawn of the Apocalypse was born. When she's not writing, she's either reading books, blogging at whoistheserialreader.blogspot.com, or watching eighties movies twitter.com/bloggerESP

Blog for the book

SCAVENGER HUNT WORDS:  I'M  and FORGET

Blog Tour: Heaven Should Fall by Rebecca Coleman

Title: Heaven Should Fall
Author: Rebecca Coleman
Publisher: Harlequin/Mira

About the book: Alone since her mother's death, Jill Wagner wants to eat, sleep and breathe Cade Olmstead when he bursts upon her life -- golden, handsome and ambitious.  Even putting college on hold feels like a minor sacrifice when she discovers she's pregnant with Cade's baby.  But it won't be the last sacrifice she'll have to make.

Retreating to the Olmsteads' New England farm seems sensible, if not ideal: they'll regroup and welcome the baby, surrounded by Cade's family.  But the remote, ramshackle place already feels crowded.  Cade's mother tends to his ailing father, while Cade's pious sister, her bigoted husband and their rowdy sons overrun the house.  Only Cade's brother, Elias, a combat veteran with a damaged spirit, gives Jill an ally amidst the chaos, along with a glimpse into his disturbing childhood.  But his burden is heavy, and she alone cannot kindle his will to live.

The tragedy of Elias is like a killing frost, withering Cade in particular, transforming his idealism into bitterness and paranoia.  Taking solace in caring for her newborn son, Jill looks up to find her golden boy is gone.  In Cade's place is a deperate man willing to endanger them all in the name of vengeance. . . unless Jill can find a way out.

My thoughts: Rebecca Coleman has done it once again. She has taken what appears to be a normal college kids and a New England family and has laid them bare and shown us all their flaws.  The thing that I find amazing about her writing is how, when she writes about these flaws, she makes them appear seemingly normal.  The issues that are raised, in this case, most notably, the lack of assistance to returning soldiers, stay with you and resurface long after the book has ended.  

Cade has tried to keep Jill separated from his family, but circumstances no longer enable him to keep them separated.  The circumstances have actually thrown them all together on a New England farm.  Jill and Cade, along with Cade's sister Candy, her husband and three boys; his brother Elias, recently home from a tour in Afghanistan, and Cade's mom and dad.  Whew - talk about crowded!  And as I mentioned before, this isn't really a normal family.  

Cade's dad was once the meanest guy in the county - part of the reason Cade left and hadn't returned - but he has had a series of strokes which has mellowed him out some, but left him dependent on Leela, his wife.  Candy and Dodge are not your normal couple.  Candy very much fits her name, and Dodge, being much older, has always been able to take advantage of her to his benefit.  Cade, being back in this environment, also begins to be swayed by Dodge and his warped view of life.   Elias, suffering from PTSD, makes an unhealthy connection with Jill, which only adds to the tragedy.  

I loved The Kingdom of Heaven and this one is a close second to it.  If you are a fan of "happily ever after"  then I would have to tell you to avoid this book!  Of course, if you have a little bit of a sadistic bent that you allow out in your readings, then pick this one up next!

Please enjoy this excerpt as part of Book Trib's Blog Tour/Scavenger Hunt and check out their website to follow the whole tour! 

As Elias extracted himself from the hug and made his way out of the line, I watched him. He was shorter than Cade by a couple of inches, and stockier; his face offered none of the animation that lit Cade’s, but his blue eyes, like his brother’s, were piercing. His expression was more or less the same as the one he wore in the photo. When he looked at me I felt as if he had been watching me all this time, all these months I’d been with Cade, a witness to my secrets. I felt embarrassed when he shook my hand.

Heaven Should Fall
Publisher/Publication Date: Harlequin, Sept 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1389-2
368 pages

One Breath Away (Scavenger Blog Tour and Giveaway)

One Breath Away

by Heather Gudenkauf

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom.  Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands.  Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care.  And thirteen-year-old Augie Baker, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

In her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered. 

One Breath Away is touring with a Scavenger Blog Tour Hunt!  My excerpt is below, but I am number 7 on the tour so please visit this link to read all the excerpts! You can also join the author, Heather Gudenkauf for a live chat on July 26!  Click the picture for more details!

(Excerpt from One Breath Away)

Not sounding like my daughter at all. Augie is confident, smart, a take-charge, no one is ever going to walk all over me kind of girl.

“Augie? What’s the matter?” I try to blink the fuzziness of the morphine away; my tongue is dry and sticks to the roof of my mouth.

Interview with Heather Gudenkauf

What draws you to write suspenseful women’s fiction? I’ve enjoyed writing since I was a child – yes, I was one of those kids who did a fist pump whenever the teacher assigned a writing project -but as is typical with most writers, I was and am, first and foremost an avid reader. As a child my favorite place in the world was our public library and I spent as much time as possible with my nose in a book. I loved mysteries and plowed my way through all the Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew Mystery books. One of my favorite mystery series growing up was The Boxcar Children which I recently learned was originally published in 1924. I read all the books that were available when I was a child, and again as an adult I read them to my own children with enthusiasm. Who can resist a story about a tight knit set of orphaned siblings, an abandoned boxcar, a dog, and the mystery surrounding a long lost grandfather?

As I got older, I continued to enjoy mystery and suspense novels but my interests expanded to a variety of genres, including books that explored the intricacies of the human heart: Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Elizabeth Berg’s Pull of the Moon, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and so many more. I’ve always admired the way writers could take me away to different places and times through the written word. I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing but didn’t sit down and seriously begin until after I was married and had my children.  But when I did, I remembered all the stories and books I’ve read through the years, remembered how deftly authors could arrange the words on a page to be suspenseful, heart wrenching, or heart-warming – to evoke all varieties of emotion. My hope is to do the same for my readers.

And last but not least - please enter to win a paperback copy of One Breath Away!  Giveaway is open to U.S./Canada only and will end on July 16, 2012 at midnight.

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The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy - First Chapter Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome to Day 18 of The Legacy of Eden First Chapter Scavenger Hunt!  If you need to get caught up - please check out the full schedule here - otherwise, read on

I was calling for her. It was I who had offered to find her.

Oh, God, if I had never…if I had never opened that letter today, if she hadn’t told the lawyers she had wanted nothing to do with them, if Cal Jr. had never inherited the farm, if I’d done the things I’d believed I was capable of, if I hadn’t been capable of the things I’d done, if…if…if…somewhere out there, all the potential versions of my life floated on parallel planes. In one I never went out that night, in another more likely alternative, she does not put down the phone. Instead she stays on the line. We talk for a long, long time.

She listens.

She forgives me.

Do you believe in ghosts?

I didn’t until I started living with them.

Two days have passed since the letter arrived. I walk past my mother sitting in my armchair mending my pinafore, or my father at the fridge humming to himself as he scans my feeble purchases of organic whole foods.

Tomorrow's excerpt can be found here:  http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/

Unfettered ambition, familial schisms and dark secrets abound in THE LEGACY OF EDEN (MIRA Books, February 2012, $15.95 U.S./$18.95 CAN.), the masterful literary debut by Nelle Davy, in which a woman recounts her family’s deeply troubled and tragic history as she prepares to return to the once-grand estate she fled almost two decades earlier.

When New York sculptor Meredith Pincetti receives a letter from a law firm, alerting her to the death of her cousin, she is suddenly confronted by her disturbing past—a past she successfully escaped and buried seventeen years ago.

Informed that Aurelia, the once-grand Iowa estate and farm where she was raised, is to be sold at auction to settle her late cousin’s debts, Meredith resolves to return to her family homestead and collect the few possessions that belonged to her parents.

In doing so, Meredith recalls the spectacular rise and disastrous fall of the Hathaway family beginning with her grandfather, Cal’s, dreams and ending with his utter disappointments. We experience her grandmother, Lavinia’s, iron will and ceaseless machinations to ensure that her vision of Aurelia comes to pass. As Aurelia thrives, becoming the largest farm in the county, behind the veneer things are crumbling. Dissipation, brutality and betrayal find fertile ground in the next generation of Hathaways. Seemingly idyllic childhoods precede the exile and return of Hathaways from multiple generations—including Meredith.

And, as Meredith returns to Aurelia, she is forced to confront her own role in her family’s tortured fall from grace. What part did she play in the events that took place during her adolescence two decades earlier? How does her festering relationship with her sisters mirror similar connections between her father’s and grandfather’s siblings? What secrets did she leave behind when she fled Iowa for New York?

Though founded and overseen by male Hathaways, it is the women—Lavinia and her sister-in-law, Piper; Julia, Cal’s daughter from his first marriage; Meredith and her sisters, Claudia and Ava—who play pivotal roles in shaping the events that occur at Aurelia. And, ultimately, it is they who reveal its unspeakable secrets.

You can read my review of The Legacy of Eden here.

THE LEGACY OF EDEN is available wherever books are sold, and at www.MIRABooks.com.