{Blog Tour} The Professor by Robert Bailey -- with review

{Blog Tour} THE SEERS by Julianna Scott (Holders #2) with review and giveaway!

Follow the tour in its entirety at: http://xpressobooktours.com/2013/12/02/tour-sign-up-the-seers-by-julianna-scott/

{ARC Review} HANG WIRE by Adam Christopher

Hang Wire
by Adam Christopher
Publisher: Angry Robot
Publishing Date: expected January 28, 2014
Source: Publisher for honest review
Length: 384 pages
Editions: print and ecopy

Ted Hall is worried. He’s been sleepwalking, and his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer.

Meanwhile, the circus has come to town, but the Celtic dancers are taking their pagan act a little too seriously, the manager of the Olde Worlde Funfair has started talking to his vintage machines, and the new acrobat’s frequent absences are causing tension among the performers.

Out in the city there are other new arrivals – immortals searching for an ancient power – a primal evil which, if unopposed, could destroy the world

Expected to be released in February 2014! Add it to your goodreads HERE! :)

This is going to be one of my rather long-winded reviews as I share parts of the story with you (no spoilers, promise). This read was different and interesting and ... extraordinary.

The story begins with a younger man, alone, during the land-rush claiming days of early America, in Oklahoma. Hundreds, perhaps into thousands, of men and women, young and old, their blood pumping with excitement for their chance at the ownership of a piece of land. Not just any land, but fertile land which they could farm or raise cattle and build their homes. It is a once in a life time chance! Some on horses, some on wagons, some running on their feet with all their might, taking the very last of their strength in order to achieve their dreams. Joel is one of those men, on foot, running with all his heart. He could have afforded a horse if he had been willing to part with his coin. The gold coin and an old decrepit looking handgun, which Joel has yet to test, are all his father left him when he left for the war, soliciting a promise from Joel to keep it well until he returns from the war, The Civil War. Joel's father won't be returning, however. He and his mother received notice of his father's demise, sending Joel's mother ill and eventually dying, leaving Joel an orphan, not quite legal age. So, yes, Joel could have sold the coin, but he couldn't part with the only link that remains of his father. Joel doesn't succeed in his footrace for land, due to a very odd occurrence. He stumbles into a deep ditch in the land. When he explores it, disoriented, it leads him to a mysterious cave, beaming with a small point of light. Red, eerie light.

Now we move to a man named Ted. A reporter for an online paper/blog/news site, Ted and his colleagues/friends are in Chinatown at a celebration of sorts with dinner and drinks at an oft-frequented restaurant. The unexpected surprise comes ta the end of the meal with the cracking of the proverbial fortune cookies. It explodes, putting a hole in the wall and shattering glass windows. All at the table were safe, no one was detrimentally injured. However, it becomes the beginning of Ted's odd, inexplicable, and disorienting experiences. They've all shrugged off the incident since no one was injured, looking at it as fodder for their blog. What Ted wasn't aware of, but later learns from Bob and Benny, the ballroom dance instructing beach bum and his coworker at the blog news firm, is a difficult to believe nor to fully comprehend is that Ted has inherited the power of one of the gods. Further surprises, Ted learns, is that Bob and Benny also possess incomprehensible powers.

Meanwhile odd and frightening events are occurring around the city of San Francisco. First of all is the string of murders: women and men are being strung up like marionettes around the city with a special type of wire.

Out the outskirts of town, a circus sets up and weird, odd, and scary things are happening in the circus, too. Bob and Benny inform Ted that it is all related: the murders, the peculiarities at the circus, and what's happening to Ted. They also inform Ted that it is his duty, his job, to stop all of these events for the well-being of the human race, and in fact of all Earth! No pressure there, Teddy-o. The frightening dark powers below the surface in the deep underground are growing. This dark is coming from the outer reaches of the universe with the intent to feed and grow and eventually take over the earth, killing it before moving on.

Joel, the young man from frontier days, lives! He is part of the management team of this mysterious circus and he built the carnival rides with his own hands, including the monkey, the central figurehead of the carousel with its red, glowing eyes. Oh, yes...it plays a part in this story, but that'd be a spoiler, so my fingers are going quiet.

Hang Wire is an interestingly unique tale. The jump it took after the landrush took me by surprise and it jumps a little bit here and there to give you the backgrounds of characters such as Bob and Benny. This was definitely unlike anything I've read before. I found it confusing at first, but suddenly everything gets woven together tightly and I was totally fixated on finishing. With likable characters and intricacies in the plot that add such depth, this was a kindle-bruiser. It was a fun ride tinged with darkness. 

{Blog Tour} THE ALMOST GIRL by AMALIE HOWARD ---with review, interviews, and giveaway!

This is going to be a huge post...sharing not only a review, but also a giveaway, interview with author, interview with main character, and spotlightly Amalie's other books and upcoming releases! READ ON! |||

{Book Review} THE DEATHS OF TAO by Wesley Chu

The Deaths of Tao
by Wesley Chu
Publisher: Angry Robot Books
Published: October 2013
Length: 464 pages
Source: publisher via netgalley

The sequel to The Lives of Tao.

The Prophus and the Genjix are at war. For centuries they have sought a way off-planet, guiding humanity’s social and technological development to the stage where space travel is possible. The end is now in sight, and both factions have plans to leave the Earth, but the Genjix method will mean the destruction of the human race.

That’s a price they’re willing to pay.

It’s up to Roen and Tao to save the world. Oh, dear…

 A thoroughly enjoyable follow up to THE LIVES OF TAO. I'm an Angry Robot publishing house junkie...they have such fantastic books like Wesley Chu's. 

Roen & Tao's story continues a few years after where we left them in THE LIVES OF TAO. Now, Roen is married (and separated) to Jill, and they have a toddler son, Cameron, but Cameron lives with his maternal grandparents out in California. 

The war between the Prophus and the Genjix is escalating. Prophus, the general populace, continues on their regular battles, not believing Roen. Meanwhile, Roen follows Tao's suspicions and leaves the organization in pursuit of Tao's belief that something much greater is going on at the Genjix camp, besides the creation of superior specimens of human hosts. 

Although Roen misses his family, his wife Jill & their son Cameron, he is ever-focused on discovering what the Genjix are up to. By chance, he finally DOES discover that Tao's hunches were correct. And Roen aims to stop them for both the Quasing's future and the world's survival. The Genjix mean to achieve their goals no matter the consequences to humans and the humans who house the Genjix Quasings are so fanatical in their belief that the Quasings are deities that they are willing to sacrifice everything, especially Enzo, the human host to the Quasing Genjix leader, Zoras. Superior in form and trained since birth to focus on one ultimate end goal, Enzo is focused and determined to bring about the ultimate end: the goal of turning planet Earth to the home for the Quasings by changing the environment to make it conducive to Quasings, but uninhabitable for humans. Without humans, these Quasings would never have survived all these generations and years, but the Genjix don't care as they view humans as worthy to only be a means to an end whereas the Prophus are regretful for inhabiting humans and grateful to their hosts. It is this most basic of differences that is the cause for the battle and war between the two factions of Quasings. 

If you read THE LIVES OF TAO, you must read this sequel. It accomplishes that which you rarely see in a sequel: it surpasses the first book. Funny and poignant, at times heart-wrenching, this was a kindle bruiser as I had to read on. A fresh look on the world with that question of "what if..." I loved it! 

Blog Tour: Skulk by Rosie Best - Review with Guest Post!

SKULK

by Rosie Best

Publisher: Strange Chemistry, imprint of Angry Robot Books

Publishing Date: October 1, 2013

Length: 387 pages

Editions: ecopy and print

Source: ARC from publisher for honest review 

When Meg witnesses the dying moments of a shapeshifting fox and is given a beautiful and powerful stone, her life changes forever. She is plunged into the dark world of the Skulk, a group of shapeshifting foxes.

As she learns about the other groups of shapeshifters that lurk around London – the Rabble, the Horde, the Cluster and the Conspiracy – she becomes aware of a deadly threat against all the shapeshifters. They must put aside all their enmity and hostility and fight together to defeat it

***Blogger has been giving me grief lately about editing the images so that when you click them, it takes you to that site. So just in case it is deciding to act foul again, the links are under the images! :) ***

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17705015-skulk

http://amzn.to/13uGLBl

A_TiffyFit's Review:

Boy, I don't know how they do it, but Strange Chemistry (and Angry Robot Books) has this knack for finding brilliant writers who know how to tell a good story! I'm wishing I could search by publisher on amazon...
SO!  A few words to describe this book before we get into the details! Everyone loves categories and labels so I would label this as: young adult, paranormal, romance, mystery, urban fantasy, magic using, action, FABULOUS!
Meg Banks is a graffiti artist (I like the nod of her name to Banksy!). She's a teenager whose parents are wealthy hoity toities, her mother in Parliament. She sneaks out at night to tag, signing her work with Thatch97. She may come from a rich family, but money doesn't make up for the abuse and lack of love. She is tortured by her mother, ignored by her father, and even at the mercy of two vicious servants, her mother's cronies Gail and Hilde. Her mother smacks her around, locks her in a wardrobe, starves her, padlocks the pantry, and the two servants treat her as if she is worse than dog poop. In a few short lines smattered throughout the beginning of this book, I was LIVID. Amazing characterizations in such little description because I really wanted to reach through the book and strangle Meg's mother, Gail, and Hilde. So instantly, my sympathy has been won for the main character. 
When Meg is out tagging, she comes across an injured fox, who turns into a man at her feet, dying and only has a few words of warning...the fog. He gives her a stone and she takes it and runs off after he dies, eager to get back home as she processes what the heck she just saw. Later...she turns into a fox. As we follow Meg's journey, we become aware of the shifters. Always in groups of six, we have the Rabble (butterflies), the Skulk (foxes), the Horde (rats), the Conspiracy (ravens), and the Cluster (spiders). I thought this was SO cool. How often do you read paranormal fantasies where shifters are spiders or butterflies?! As Meg meets her Skulk members and others from the other groups, we learn of their origination. Each was created to guard a specific stone of power, to keep them separate. The Skulk was given dominion over the Hands stone, the Rabble over Sight, the Horde over Spirit, the Conspiracy over Mind, and the Cluster over Shadow. But there is evil lurking...someone is looking to unite the stones and have that ultimate power... 
After new friends are dying left and right and her parents are murdered before her eyes, Meg has taken it upon herself to go after the wicked Victoria. She tries to gather help, but is turned down by many, except...the Rabble.
While this book seemed to have started slowly, once it picked up (and that's after only a few short pages), it FLEW. She's compassionate and brave and at times flighty. She's gung-ho about how something is wrong, and then seems to forget about it for a moment as she's enamored of Mo, but she gets back on track. A fun read whose ending left me with my jaw dangling as I turned the page only to find a blank one staring at me. You will hate a few of the characters (deservedly so), you will smile as you encounter others, and cheer on Meg as she soldiers on. I'd definitely recommend to anyone who appreciates YA urban and paranormal fantasy. I'm looking forward to more!  ~Tiffany



About Rosie Best:
Rosie Best lives in London and loves all things nerdy. She is an editor at Working Partners Ltd, working on a huge variety of projects from first chapter books about unicorns to dark YA journeys through the land of the dead.

She’s also written for Working Partners on a freelance basis, on series published by Usborne and Hot Key Books.

The opening of Skulk won a place in the 2012 Undiscovered Voices anthology. When not writing or indulging a passion for video games, she sings with the Crouch End Festival Chorus.

You can connect with Rosie at her [ Blog ]  and on [ Twitter  ]

Guest Post! I asked Rosie to give us a peek at some more personal information about herself. Here are ten things you won't find in any author bio on her! 

10 Things About Me You Won’t Find In My Author Bio

1. My iPod is named Aethelbert

After the obscure Saxon king. There was a reason I picked this at the time, but I can’t completely remember what it was. My phone is called Joan, after the terrifyingly competent and gorgeous character from Mad Men - because she is beautiful and she runs my life.

2. My favourite comfort movie is Sleepy Hollow

Johnny Depp hamming it up and fainting all over the place! A whole ensemble of giant hams like Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths and Jeffrey Jones! ‘The head was not found buried... the head was not found at all!’ Christina Ricci running through the woods in amazing dresses! Miranda Richardson just being splendid as usual! Horse stunts! Lots and lots of blood! I absolutely love this movie.

3. I’m a white belt senior at Choi Kwang Do

It’s a variation on Taekwondo - I’m only one step up from complete beginner, but I do have quite a mean front knee strike.

4. Summer Glau once said she liked my shirt

I went to get my DVD of Firefly signed, when the cast were over in the UK for the premiere of Serenity. I wore a home-made Firefly t-shirt which I’d painted and embroidered myself (see point 8) and Summer Glau said she liked it, which pretty much made my year.

5. I daydream about writing really terrible romance novels

You’d think that someone who complains so much about badly done romance in stories wouldn’t want to write entire stories about romance, but every so often I’ll spot a cheesy Mills and Boon on a shelf and think, I could throw one of those together and I bet it’d be incredibly fun. It would be bad in so many ways - I don’t pretend that I could just throw together a good romance novel, because those are very tricky and I have a lot of respect for people who write romances well! But for some reason the idea of writing a hasty, badly-plotted, inconsistent mess of a romance novel appeals to me whereas doing the same with fantasy, sci-fi or even contemporary realism just makes me cringe.

6. I’m always on the lookout for tattoo ideas, even though I will probably never actually get one

I am far too afraid of pain, and not sufficiently happy about my body, to actually do this. But that doesn’t stop me thinking about it! At the moment, the front-runner is the final line from the Wendy Cope poem The Orange [http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2008/11/the-orange-by-wendy-cope.html]: ‘I love you, I’m glad I exist’. In the past I’ve seriously considered ‘Don’t Panic’ in large, friendly letters, Alphonse Mucha’s painting ‘La Plume’ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sofi01/4226076487/lightbox/], and the symbol from the cover of Skulk!

7. If I ever decided to start cosplaying, I’d be Agatha Heterodyne from Girl Genius

She’s just so cool - and so fun. I would make a whole bunch of her little minion inventions and drag them along after me on tiny wheels.

8. I am intermittently crafty

I love to sew, draw, and make fanvids - but I tend to take quite a long time to finish projects and sometimes forget I started them at all. Currently I’m cross-stitching the house banners from Game of Thrones as a present for a friend, which is good because it means I have to finish them sometime. I’m thinking about embroidering the Skulk symbol on something when I’ve finished, because I love it that much and I’m just that much of a nerd.

9. I really, really, really love the sea and boats

I have a serious romantic weakness for them. I put it down to having Cornish blood, and I spent a lot of time in my childhood by the seaside at Gorran Haven or Mevagissey or on my Granddad’s little fishing boat. And also to the fact that the sea and boats are completely awesome. (My second favourite guilty pleasure Johnny Depp film? Pirates of the Caribbean. I even loved the third one. Don’t judge me.) I don’t know how to sail, but one day I’m going to learn and then go on one of those holidays where you crew a proper old-fashioned galleon up and down the coast.

10. I can be heard singing on the soundtrack of this moment in television history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_glS095ldM

Not the soloist who comes in first, but the choir. That’s my choir! That’s me! This is a cheat, because I mention the choir in my bio and I also crowbar this fact into conversation as often as I possibly can, but I don’t care. I’m ridiculously proud of it.

Thank you, Rosie! I must say that 

1. I'm a Firefly fan, too!
2. I totally empathize with you on #8
3. I love the sea, but I get motion sick so I have to admire boats from afar! :) 

Don't forget! SKULK comes out OCT 1, 2013! 

You can pre-order today!

http://amzn.to/13uHylC

Don't miss the other stops on this tour! 

Click here to check them out!