Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts

Saturday, November 05, 2016

Audiobook Tour: Heartborn Review + Excerpt

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HeartbornTitle: Heartborn
Author: Terry Maggert
Release Date: September 1, 2016
Source: Audiobook from TheAudioBookworm
Synopsis: 
Her guardian angel was pushed.
Keiron was never meant to be anything other than a hero. Born high above in a place of war and deception, he is Heartborn, a being of purity and goodness in a place where violence and deceit are just around every corner.
His disappearance will spark a war he cannot see, for Keiron has pierced the light of days to save a girl he has never met, for reasons he cannot understand. Livvy Foster is seventeen, brave, and broken. With half a heart, she bears the scars of a lifetime of pain and little hope of survival.
Until Keiron arrives.
In the middle of a brewing war and Livvy’s failing heart, Keiron will risk everything for Livvy, because a Heartborn’s life can only end in one way: Sacrifice.
Fall with Livvy and Keiron as they seek the truth about her heart, and his power, and what it means to love someone who will give their very life to save you.

My Review:
Audio Portion:
The narrator for Heartborn was fantastic. She had a crisp, clear voice that I could perfectly understand even with the speed turned up. She also made the story sound really good. I was more keen on listening to her voice throughout the story because it was so soothing. x
This audiobook was not long; clocking in at 6 hours and 20 minutes. Throughout those six and a half hours (less because I had it on 1.5x speed) I did not lose focus. I even sat down with almost 4 hours left just to finish it because I was so interested.
My one complaint about the narration was that she made all the men sound the same. I could not tell the difference between the male characters as I could the females. It made listening difficult, especially when there was more than one man in the scene.
Story Portion:
I left confused. I really enjoyed the story that was told, don’t get me wrong, but I have questions.
heartborn-graphic-1Such as:
·       Why is Keiron so well adjusted to the human world?
·       What the hell is a Heartborn?
·       How does a 17-year-old have a full time job?
·       Why isn’t Livvy in school?
·       Where does Keiron live in the human world?
I need those to be answered so I can actually understand what the heck is going on in this dang story!
Besides all my questions, I did like the story. Like I said above, I sat down just to listen to the story so I could know what happened! Besides the vagueness, the story was very well written and entertaining.
I absolutely loved Livvy. She is one tough cookie that has not let having half a heart get her down. Even though she can’t fully live life, that doesn’t stop her. She isn’t sad and moping about her situation, instead she does what she can and doesn’t let herself let a moment go by that she isn’t savoring life.
I wish I had more from Keiron’s perspective. He was a very vague character that suddenly appears in Livvy’s life for a few day’s and suddenly she is dating him. Like what? It took me over a year of getting to know my boyfriend before we started dating. That doesn’t just happen! You can’t go around kissing people in a library, that’s not how it works. Though, it might. This was a YA Fantasy novel. Anything can happen in them.

All in all, I loved Heartborn. I need my questions answered and I hope that there is a sequel so I can continue on with the story and also have these pesky questions answered! I do wish I had the book in my hand to follow along with, maybe I would’ve found the answers to some of those questions. Plus, there was some really good quotes that I wished I could’ve highlighted! I would recommend reading or listening to this book if you are into angels and strong female characters. Oh, and one hell of a plot twist.  

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author-bio
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  Born in 1968, I discovered fishing shortly after walking, a boon, considering I lived in South Florida. After a brief move to Kentucky, my family trekked back to the Sunshine State. I had the good fortune to attend high school in idyllic upstate New York, where I learned about a mythical substance known as “Seasons”. After two or three failed attempts at college, I bought a bar. That was fun because I love beer, but, then, I eventually met someone smarter than me (a common event), and, in this case, she married me and convinced me to go back to school–which I did, with enthusiasm. I earned a Master’s Degree in History and rediscovered my love for writing. My novels explore dark fantasy, immortality, and the nature of love as we know it. I live near Nashville, Tennessee, with the aforementioned wife, son, and herd, and, when I’m not writing, I teach history, grow wildly enthusiastic tomato plants, and restore my 1967 Mustang.  
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narrator-bio
pastedimage  Julia Whelan has appeared in many films and television series, most notably ABC’s Once And Again. After receiving a degree in English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College and Oxford University, Julia began narrating audiobooks. She’s recorded hundreds of novels across all genres and has received multiple Earphones and Audie Awards. She is repeatedly named one of Audiofile Magazine’s Best Voices and was Audible’s Narrator of the Year.  
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tour-schedule
Nov. 1: ShannonBookishLife (Review) 
Nov. 2: Buried Under Books (Spotlight & Giveaway)
Nov. 3: Dab of Darkness (Review, Interview & Giveaway)
Nov. 4: Maureen’s Book Blog (Review & Audio Excerpt)
Nov. 5: Paper Cuts (Review, Audio Excerpt & Giveaway) 
Nov. 6: Never 2 Many 2 Read (Review & Giveaway) 
Nov. 7: LilyBloom Books (Review, Audio Excerpt & Giveaway) 
Nov. 8: Mama Reads Blog (Review & Spotlight) 
Nov. 9: Foxes and Fairy Tales (Review)
Nov. 10: Desert Bibliophile (Review, Audio Excerpt, Spotlight & Giveaway) 
Nov. 11: Such A Novel Idea (Review, Audio Excerpt & Giveaway) Where Books Lead Us (Review)
Nov. 12: Where Books Lead Us (Audio Excerpt & Spotlight)
Nov. 13: A Book with Bea (Audio Excerpt & Spotlight)
Nov. 14Highway YA (Review)
ABW Promos3

Friday, May 27, 2016

Spotlight Tour: What Happens in Texas


Title: What Happens in Texas
Author: Carolyn Brown
Pubdate: June 6th, 2016
ISBN: 9781492638742

Carolyn Brown brings her unique voice to this tale of twin sisters finding love in a small Texas town

Cathy Andrews’s biological clock has passed the ticking stage and is dangerously close to “blown plumb up”. While her twin sister Marty thinks settling down with one man is just a waste of good cowboys, Cathy wants it all: the perfect husband, the baby, and a little house right there in Cadillac. But even as the town is laying bets on whose wedding will be next, Cathy doesn’t see happily-ever-after happening anytime soon.

Fortunately, Cathy and Marty have best friends who aren’t afraid to stir up a ruckus—and if it means Cathy’s got to bust out and set the town on its ear they’ll back her up—no matter how hot things get.

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author and RITA Finalist, Carolyn Brown, has published more than seventy books.  These days she is concentrating on her two loves:  women’s fiction and contemporary cowboy romance. She and her husband, a retired English teacher, make their home in southern Oklahoma.

Buy Links:
Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1ZjhVOO


An Excerpt:

If Prissy Parnell hadn’t married Buster Jones and left Cadillac, Texas, for Pasadena, California, Marty wouldn’t have gotten the speeding ticket. It was all Prissy’s damn fault that Marty was in such a hurry to get to the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society monthly meeting that night, so Prissy ought to have to shell out the almost two hundred dollars for that ticket.
They were already passing around the crystal bowl to take up the voting ballots when Marty slung open the door to Violet Prescott’s sunroom and yelled, “Don’t count ’em without my vote.”
Twenty faces turned to look at her and not a one of them, not even her twin sister, Cathy, was smiling. Hell’s bells, who had done pissed on their cucumber sandwiches before she got there, anyway? A person didn’t drop dead from lack of punctuality, did they?
One wall of the sunroom was glass and looked out over lush green lawns and flower gardens. The other three were covered with shadow boxes housing the blue ribbons that the members had won at the Texas State Fair for their jalapeño pepper entries. More than forty shadow boxes all reminding the members of their history and their responsibility for the upcoming year. Bless Cathy’s heart for doing her part. She had a little garden of jalapeños on the east side of the lawn and nurtured them like children. The newest shadow box held ribbons that she’d earned for the club with her pepper jelly and picante. It was the soil, or maybe she told them bedtime stories, but she, like her mamma and grandma, grew the hottest jalapeños in the state.
“It appears that Martha has decided to grace us with her presence once again when it is time to vote for someone to take our dear Prissy’s place in the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society. We really should amend our charter to state that a member has to attend more than one meeting every two years. You could appreciate the fact that we did amend it once to include you in the membership with your sister, who, by the way, has a spotless attendance record,” Violet said.
Violet, the queen of the club, as most of the members called it, was up near eighty years old, built like SpongeBob SquarePants, and had stovepipe jet-black hair right out of the bottle. Few people had the balls or the nerve to cross her, and those who did were put on her shit list right under Martha, aka Marty, Andrews’ name, which was always on the top.
Back in the beginning of the club days, before Marty was even born, the mayor’s wife held the top position on the shit list. When they’d formed the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society, Loretta Massey and Violet almost went to war over the name of the new club. Loretta insisted that it be called a society, and Violet wanted it to be called a club. Belonging to a club just sounded so much fancier than saying that one belonged to a society. Loretta won when the vote came in, but Violet called it a club anyway and that’s what stuck. Rumor had it that Violet was instrumental in getting the mayor ousted just so they’d have to leave Grayson County and Loretta would have to quit the club.
Marty hated it when people called her Martha. It sounded like an old woman’s name. What was her mother thinking anyway when she looked down at two little identical twin baby daughters and named them after her mother and aunt—Martha and Catherine? Thank God she’d at least shortened their names to Marty and Cathy.
Marty shrugged, and Violet snorted. Granted, it was a ladylike snort, but it still went right along with her round face and three-layered neck. Hell, if they wanted to write forty amendments to the charter, Marty would still do only the bare necessities to keep her in voting standing. She hadn’t even wanted to be in the damned club and had only done it because if she didn’t, then Cathy couldn’t.
Marty slid into a seat beside her sister and held up her ballot.
Beulah had the bowl in hand and was ready to hand it off to Violet to read off the votes. But she passed it to the lady on the other side of her and it went back around the circle to Marty, who tossed in her folded piece of paper. If she’d done her homework and gotten the numbers right, that one vote should swing the favor for Anna Ruth to be the new member of the club. She didn’t like Anna Ruth, especially since she’d broken up her best friend’s marriage. But hey, Marty had made a deathbed promise to her mamma, and that carried more weight than the name of a hussy on a piece of paper.
The bowl went back to Violet and she put it in her lap like the coveted jeweled crown of a reigning queen. “Our amended charter states that only twenty-one women can belong to the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society at any one time, and the only time we vote a new member in is when someone moves or dies. Since Prissy Parnell got married this past week and moved away from Grayson County, we are open for one new member. The four names on the ballet are: Agnes Flynn, Trixie Matthews, Anna Ruth Williams, and Gloria Rawlings.”
Even though it wasn’t in the fine print, everyone knew that when attending a meeting, the members should dress for the occasion, which meant panty hose and heels. Marty could feel nineteen pairs of eyes on her. It would have been twenty, but Violet was busy fishing the first ballot from the fancy bowl.
Marty threw one long leg over the other and let the bright red, three-inch-heeled shoe dangle on her toe. They could frown all they wanted. She was wearing a dress, even if it only reached midthigh, and had black spandex leggings under it. If they wanted her to wear panty hose, they’d better put a second amendment on that charter and make it in big print.
God Almighty, but she’d be glad when her great-aunt died and she could quit the club. But it looked like Agnes was going to last forever, which was no surprise. God sure didn’t want her in heaven, and the devil wouldn’t have her in hell.
“One vote for Agnes,” Violet said aloud.
Beulah marked that down on the minutes and waited.
Violet enjoyed her role as president of the club and took her own sweet time with each ballot. Too bad she hadn’t dropped dead or at least moved to California so Cathy could be president. Marty would bet her sister would get those votes counted a hell of a lot faster.
There was one piece of paper in the candy dish when Beulah held up a hand. “We’ve got six each for Agnes, Trixie, Anna Ruth, and two for Gloria. Unless this last vote is for Agnes, Trixie, or Anna Ruth, we have a tie, and we’ll have to have a runoff election.”
“Shit!” Marty mumbled.
Cathy shot her a dirty look.
“Anna Ruth,” Violet said and let out a whoosh of air.
A smile tickled the corner of Marty’s mouth.
Saved, by damn!
Agnes was saved from prison.
Violet was saved from attending her own funeral.
The speeding ticket was worth every penny.
 
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