Cover Reveal: Creators by Tiffany Truitt

Today Tiffany Truitt and Entangled Teen are revealing the final cover for The Lost Souls Trilogy, CREATORS. Along with an exclusive excerpt and a pre-order giveaway that Tiffany has set up on her blog!

On to the reveal!

Heartbroken but more determined than ever after a tense showdown in the woods, sixteen-year-old Tess once again returns to the safety of her community of Isolationists. Bolstered by new alliances and desperate to protect those she loves, this time she knows she can return stronger and more powerful than ever to take back what is hers. As she trains in combat and grows more confident, Tess receives beautiful letters penned by her forbidden love, the chosen one James, from his prison in Templeton. He is now serving as a  bodyguard to the creators—the team of scientists who created artificial life in the first place. And what he has discovered about the true origin of the illness that halted natural life could change everything.

Enemy will become ally and death will bring new hope in this stunning conclusion to Tiffany Truitt’s epic Lost Souls trilogy.

Goodreads/Amazon

Exclusive Excerpt!

Somewhere, James was just as trapped as I was.

            I thought of the morning when we lay with each other, curled against one another, never beginning and never ending. How we’d stayed like that till the sun began to rise.

            James had reached down and pulled me off the ground. He wore a satisfied grin on his face. “Someone is mighty proud of himself,” I teased.

            He laughed. It bounced through the forest, calling it awake. Readying it for the day. “I’m just insanely happy.”

            I stood on the tips of my toes and kissed him gently on his scar. “I’m insanely happy too,” I whispered. 

            James looked down at me, and I was lost all over again. I would never tire of looking into those mismatched eyes. They didn’t make him different. They made him him. He chuckled as he reached over and pulled a leaf from my tangled hair. “They’ll know just by looking at you that we’ve been up to no good.”

            “No good?” I purred. “I thought it was very, very good.”

            James growled and lifted me into the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pressed his lips hungrily against mine. I moved my hands to his hair, curling my fingers into it, attaching myself to him. I never wanted to let go. Every part of me ached to be touched by him, and every part of me ached to touch him right back.

            “Do you know how much I love you?” he breathed into the base of my neck. His lips fluttered against my skin.

            I nodded, kissing the top of his head. “As much as I love you.”

            James slowly put my feet back on the ground. He cradled my face in his hands. “That will never change. No matter what.”

            I looked deep into his eyes. “I know.” Because I did. It was one of life’s few assurances. I would always love James.

            I pressed my lips once again to his scar. “I adore this scar,” I whispered, unable to hide the smile that seemed etched on my face all morning.

            “You’re enough to drive a man crazy,” he said The tremble of his voice caused my toes to curl. I wanted him again. And again. And again.

            My fingers traced the waist of his pants. “Tonight?” I said, knowing full well it was a promise that I probably wouldn’t be able to keep.

            James grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips. “Tonight,” he echoed.

            As the sun climb higher into the sky, I knew our moment was coming to an end. James reached down and placed his hand over my heart. “Thank you,” he said.

            “For what?” I asked, my voice choked with emotion.

            “For everything.”

            As the memory slipped away, I looked back up at the night sky. Praying and hoping that James knew how much I wanted to thank him too.

            For everything.

Tiffany Truitt was born in Peoria, Illinois. A self-proclaimed Navy brat, Tiffany spent most of her childhood living in Virginia, but don’t call her a Southerner. She also spent a few  years living in Cuba. Since her time on the island of  one McDonalds and Banana Rats (don’t ask), she has been obsessed with traveling. Tiffany recently added China to her list of travels (hello inspiration for a new book). 

Besides traveling, Tiffany has always been an avid reader. The earliest books she remembers reading belong to The Little House on the Prairie Series. First book she read in one day? Little Woman(5th grade). First author she fell in love with? Jane Austen in middle school. Tiffany spent most of her high school and college career as a literary snob. She refused to read anything considered “low brow” or outside the “classics.”

Tiffany began teaching middle school in 2006. Her students introduced her to the wide, wonderful world of Young Adult literature.

Today, Tiffany embraces popular Young Adult literature and uses it in her classroom. She currently teaches the following novels: The Outsiders, Speak, Night, Dystopian Literature Circles: The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Uglies, and Matched.

Tiffany is proud to call herself an educator and Young Adult author. Her first book will be published by Entangled Publishing.

Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

Also Tiffany has a Pre-Order Contest going on over at her blog http://tiffanytruitt.wordpress.com/ three lucky people that pre-order CREATORS will win a signed Cassandra Clare poster!

Naturals by Tiffany Truitt (Book Review and Giveaway)

Blog Tour for Naturals!  April 1 - May 3

Title: Naturals (Lost Souls, #2)

Author: Tiffany Truitt

Publisher: Entangled Teen

About the Book:Ripped away from those she loves most, Tess is heartbroken as her small band of travelers reaches the Isolationist camp in the mysterious and barren Middlelands. Desperate to be reunited with James, the forbidden chosen one who stole her heart, she wants nothing to do with the rough Isolationists, who are without allegiance in the war between the Westerners and Easterners. But having their protection, especially for someone as powerful as Tess, may come at a cost.

When James returns, Tess’s world once again feels complete—until she discovers her sister, Louisa, has taken up her old post at Templeton, the dangerous chosen ones training center and the site of Tess’s loss of innocence. Tess will do anything to protect her loved ones—but will the price be more than she can give?

This second book in Tiffany Truitt’s dystopian series is a thought-provoking, thrilling story that asks who the true enemy really is—the chosen ones who are different, or the naturals…who are just like us.

Purchase Links

~Amazon~     ~Barnes and Noble~     ~Book Depository~

My thoughts: This is the second book in the Lost Souls series and while she does give you a lot of information to fill in some of the blanks if you haven't read the first book, I am really glad that I had.  (Check out my review of Chosen Ones.)  There may be some spoilers from Chosen Ones in my review below.

Naturals picks up where Chosen Ones left off - Tess has finally escaped Templeton, with her childhood friend Henry and brother-in-law Robert, but she has left behind the two people she loves most - her younger sister Louisa and James, the chosen one that awoke in her all the feelings that the Council had tried to snuff out.

Tess is on the run because it has been discovered that she is actually fertile and would be able to live if she were to get pregnant.  In the wasteland that has become the U.S. after the wars, women have lost the ability to bear children.  Her own sister, Emma, died in childbirth, and so she has seen in first hand. The Council would like nothing more than for the 'natural' human race to die out.  They have no need for them since they have started creating the perfect 'chosen ones.'  Both races have been taught to hate the other one, but somehow James and Tess got past those early lessons.

Now Tess is in the midlands at an Isolationist community, and is finding that prejudices run deep both ways.  That even in this 'free' community, there are still those in power who want to take away the rights of some.  She does discover though that there is another one like her, able to have kids, living in the community.  That is pretty much the only thing they have in common though.  Sharon has had 8 children, though only 5 have lived.  Tess is pretty sure that she doesn't want to become another Sharon.  She can't imagine having sex with any man who wants to try to have a child.  Tess is pretty standoffish with her and doesn't understand why Sharon keeps going out of her way to help her.  

Then there is Lockwood.  Tess is partnered up with him to learn what her job in the community is going to be - milking cows and taking care of other livestock.  Lockwood turns out to be a really good friend to Tess, proving that men and women can just be friends.  Tess's friendship with Henry is more complicated than that.  She doesn't think she will ever see James again, and having Henry close is reminding her of all the feelings that she had for James and awakening desires that she is not sure she wants.  

I loved this book and flew through it in a day.  I can't wait for the third book as this one leaves you hanging on wanting more!

~I received a complimentary ecopy of Naturals from Entangled Teen in exchange for my unbiased review.~

About the author: Tiffany Truitt was born in Peoria, Illinois. A self-proclaimed Navy brat, Tiffany spent most of her childhood living in Virginia, but don’t call her a Southerner. She also spent a few years living in Cuba. Since her time on the island of  one McDonalds and Banana Rats (don’t ask), she has been obsessed with traveling. Tiffany recently added China to her list of travels (hello inspiration for a new book).

Besides traveling, Tiffany has always been an avid reader. Tiffany spent most of her high school and college career as a literary snob. She refused to read anything considered “low brow” or outside the “classics.”

Tiffany began teaching middle school in 2006. Her students introduced her to the wide, wonderful world of Young Adult literature. Today, Tiffany embraces popular Young Adult literature and uses it in her classroom. Tiffany is proud to call herself an educator and Young Adult author. 

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Book Review: Chosen Ones by Tiffany Truitt

Title: Chosen Ones (The Lost Souls, Book One)
Author: Tiffany Truitt
Publisher: Entangled Teen

About the book: Life is bleak but uncomplicated for sixteen-year-old Tess, living in a not-too-distant future where the government, faced with humanity's extinction, created the Chosen Ones, artificial beings who are extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly. 

When Tess begins work at Templeton, a Chosen Ones training facility, she meets James, and the attraction is immediate in its intensity, overwhelming in its danger. But there is more to Templeton than Tess ever knew. Can she stand against her oppressors, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?

Purchase Links:

~Barnes and Noble~     ~Amazon~     ~IndieBound~     

Add on Goodreads

My Thoughts: This was a great dystopian novel!  I would love to see it made into a movie!   Tess tries to be tough and unfeeling, but her walls start to crumble after she meets James.  She is a Natural, and he is a Chosen One.  While the powers-that-be don't discourage contact between the Chosen Ones at Templeton and the Naturals working there, it is understood that any contact they may have is simply a physical relationship.  That there can be no true feelings between the two.    But let me back up.

When war has taken the life out of the Naturals, they decide to create a race to fight for them, so the Chosen Ones are created.  They are all male, no emotions, fighting machines.  For the first years of their life, when emotional attachments are generally formed, they are kept alive on machines with only videos looped over and over to educate them - to tell them how insignificant the Naturals were and how they are unbeatable. Women especially are viewed as insignificant and what caused the downfall of the human race.  For the most part, they are now sterile and if they try to have children, both they and the child die in childbirth.  This is how Tess comes to be at Templeton.  

The oldest female child is forced to serve a term at Templeton.  If for some reason, they cannot fulfill that term, then the next female child must finish it.  Tess's older sister Emma, foolishly got pregnant and died in childbirth, so Tess had to finish her obligation at Templeton.  She meets James the first day there and there is immediately a strange attraction between the two.  They know it is dangerous and that they must keep it hidden, as  theirs is not a physical relationship, but one of trust and caring.  If it is found out, they can both be in danger.

I love how you see and feel their relationship build from the beginning.  How you want to see them together, but you don't know who you can trust.  The author slowly reveals the secrets of Templeton to you and begins to reveal the power of the Chosen Ones.  You learn right along with Tess, so her shocks are your shocks as well.  

I am so happy that I already have book two, Naturals, to read! It is being released in April, so watch for my review then!

~I received a complimentary ecopy of Chosen Ones from Entangled Teen in exchange for my unbiased review.~

COVER REVEAL: Naturals by Tiffany Truitt

Naturals

by Tiffany Truitt

 Tess is finally safe from the reach of the Council, now that she is living in the Middlelands with the rebel Isolationists. With James having returned to Templeton, she easily falls back into her friendship with Henry, though her newfound knowledge of Robert’s chosen one status still stings. Even surrounded by people, Tess has never felt more alone. So she’s thrilled when James returns to the settlement, demanding to see Tess — until she finds out that it’s because her sister, Louisa, has been recruited into Tess’s old position at Templeton, and that the dangerously sadistic chosen one George has taken an interest in her.

NATURALS is the second book in The Lost Souls trilogy, and follows the dystopian hit CHOSEN ONES.

Add Naturals to your Goodreads TBR list today as well as Chosen Ones - Book one in The Lost Souls trilogy!

About Tiffany:  Tiffany Truitt was born in Peoria, Illinois. A self-proclaimed Navy brat, Tiffany spent most of her childhood living in Virginia, but don’t call her a Southerner. She also spent a few years living in Cuba. Since her time on the island of  one McDonald's and Banana Rats (don't ask) she has been obsessed with traveling. Tiffany recently added China to her list of travels (hello inspiration for a new book).

Besides traveling, Tiffany has always been an avid reader. The earliest books she remembers reading belong to The Little House on the Prairie Series. First book she read in one day? Little Woman(5th grade). First author she fell in love with? Jane Austen in middle school. Tiffany spent most of her high school and college career as a literary snob. She refused to read anything considered “low brow” or outside the “classics.”

Tiffany began teaching middle school in 2006. Her students introduced her to the wide, wonderful world of Young Adult literature. Today, Tiffany embraces popular Young Adult literature and uses it in her classroom. She currently teaches the following novels: The Outsiders, Speak, Night, Dystopian Literature Circles: The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Uglies, and Matched.

You can connect with Tiffany on her website - TIffany Truitt: Author Wanabe and twitter.

Pre-order Naturals today!

Naturals
Publisher/Publication Date: Entangled Publishing, Expected Apr 2013
ISBN: 9781620611470
352 pages