Welcome to my stop on the Official
The Shadow Prince blog tour
The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain 512 pages
Published March 11th 2014 by Egmont
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Into the Dark #1
Source: Finished copy from Publisher
Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High a haven for children of the rich and famous Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.
Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn t the only student in Olympus who doesn t quite belong.
Haden and Daphne destined for each other know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers lives collide. But Daphne won t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended he s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.
A pulsating romance of epic proportions, Bree Despain s The Shadow Prince will leave her fans breathless for the next book in the Into The Dark series.
The Shadow Prince is a whopper of a book. It comes in at over 500 pages long , and the only thing I was thinking when I was done with it was, That wasn t long enough. I want more! I love mythology and I really enjoyed all of the attention to mythological details that Bree wove into the story. Mythology really was everywhere, throughout the street names in the town to the class lectures at school. It was an immersion into the stories of Persephone and Hades, which just so happens to be one of my very favorite myths. For example, One of Daphne s teachers was teaching her class about some versions of the Persephone myth and she was describing a thesis paper she wrote in college and I thought even that sounded fascinating. I would totally read her paper. So I may be a bit of a mythology nerd, but this book is perfect for both mythology enthusiasts like me and newbies alike.
I loved how strong willed Daphne was. She is not going to back down from anything or anyone. But she wasn t so stubborn as to be pig headed. She could admit when she was wrong. That is a balance that I seldom see in main characters. They are normally all or nothing. And I loved how passionate Daphne was about music. She could see music in everything. It was pretty magical, and Bree made all of it come to life in the story through her descriptive writing. This is a book that would have one of the most killer playlists out there- that s for sure.
Hayden is chosen as a surprising guardian. Right off the bat he is the underdog and I couldn t help but root for him. I felt bad about the harsh reactions he drew from everyone in his home court. And throughout the book he kept alluding to this big, bad horrible thing that he did to earn his people s hatred. It was driving me crazy trying to guess what it was. Watching Hayden fall in love with Daphne was really sweet. You know it is going to happen from the start, but even so it will make you smile. I am pretty in love with them myself.
The Shadow Prince is the first book in the Into the Dark Series, and I already know that I am going to freakin LOVE this series. Not only did this book have me on the edge of my seat over the action scenes, but it had me laughing out loud and awh-ing at some of Hayden s parts. It is told in dual narrative, which served the story well. We got to see a peak into Hayden's head as well as get to see into his world. A great book for fans of mythology and for people who are new to the story of Hades and Persephone. This series is a hit!
Bree Despain is the author of The Dark Divine trilogy: The Dark Divine, The Lost Saint, and The Savage Grace. She rediscovered her childhood love for creating stories when she took a semester off from college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner-city teens from Philadelphia and New York. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband, two young sons, and her beloved TiVo. You can visit her online atwww.breedespain.com.
To enter, fill out the rafflecopter below to win a finished copy of The Shadow Prince
Rules:
Be sure to check out tomorrow's stops on the tour for more chances to win
Friday, April 04, 2014
Two Chicks on Books
http://www.twochicksonbooks.com/
guest post and giveaway
Cornucopia of Reviews
http://cornucopiaofreviews.blogspot.com/
review and giveaway
*Note this post contains affiliate links. Any/all money made through my amazon affiliate account goes back into the blog for giveaways.
Welcome to my Stop on the Fortune Caf� blog tour
The Fortune Caf� by Julie Wright , Melanie Jacobson, Heather B. Moore a novel in three parts ebook, 280 pages
Published March 17th 2014 by Mirror Press
Age Group: New Adult/Adult clean Romance
Series: Tangerine Street Romance #1
Source: ecopy from Authors
Welcome to Tangerine Street
Tangerine Street is a must-see tourist stop with a colorful mix of one-of-a-kind boutiques, unique restaurants, eclectic museums, quaint bookstores, and exclusive bed-and-breakfasts. The Fortune Caf�, situated in the middle of this charming collection of shops and caf�s on Tangerine Street, is a Chinese restaurant unlike any other because, well, to be honest, the fortunes found in the cookies all come true�
MIS-FORTUNE: Emma, a waitress at The Fortune Caf� will do anything to avoid opening a fortune cookie. Each fortune is rumored to somehow magically come true. Being a girl grounded in reality, she doesn�t have time for that kind of nonsense. But when trying to prevent a food fight at the caf�, Emma accidently cracks open a fortune cookie: �Look around, love is trying to catch you.� If there is one thing that Harrison, her former best friend in high school is good at, it�s catching her unaware.
LOVE, NOT LUCK: Lucy has always been lucky . . . until her parents meet her fianc�s parents at a disastrous lunch at The Fortune Caf�, and she breaks her lucky jade necklace. Even worse, her fortune cookie reveals that �True love is for the brave, not the lucky.� How is she supposed to read that? She�s always considered it lucky how she met her fianc�. But after breaking her necklace, Lucy�s luck takes a dive. And when her fianc� dumps her, the only person she can turn to is Carter, the unluckiest guy she knows.
TAKEOUT: Stella is content in her new life of taking over her mom�s jewelry shop. No more boyfriend to worry about, and as long as she stays busy, she doesn�t have to dwell on her non-existent love life. When Evan comes into the shop with his young daughter, Stella is charmed. But she is reluctant to complicate her straightforward life, so when she reads her fortune after ordering takeout from The Fortune Caf�, she completely ignores it. After all, how can a fortune as vague as �Do the thing you fear and love is certain,� apply to her?
Emma, Lucy and Stella are the three ladies in The Fortune Cafe. I think I liked Emma's story the best. Hers was about a guy that had a crush on her in high school suddenly coming back into her life. It was so cute. I also really liked the luck theme going through "Lucky" Lucy's story. The stories are not pure fluff though. They each have their own unique hardships going on. One of the three girls starts out engaged and gets dumped by her jerk of a fiance. And another one has the stress of caring for her abusive and mentally ill mother. The stories each felt like glimpses into the real lives of these women.
You can't help but root for their happy endings. I really enjoyed The Fortune Cafe. It is a feel good book that is sure to put a smile on your face. Emma Stella and Lucky Lucy are each great characters and any one of them can easily turn out to be your favorite. This book made me want to go out and get some fortune cookies to see what my fortunes would be. The Fortune Cafe is feel good fun that I think fans of young adult and adult contemporaries will easily enjoy.
Julie Wright started her first book when she was fifteen. She�s written over a dozen books since then, is a Whitney Award winner, and feels she�s finally getting the hang of this writing gig. She enjoys speaking to writing groups, youth groups, and schools. She loves reading, eating writing, hiking, playing on the beach with her kids, and snuggling with her husband to watch movies. Julie�s favorite thing to do is watch her husband make dinner. She hates mayonnaise, but has a healthy respect for ice cream.
Melanie Bennett Jacobson is an avid reader, amateur cook, and champio
n shopper. She consumes astonishing amounts of chocolate, chick flicks, and romance novels. After meeting her husband online, she is now living happily married in Southern California with her growing family and a series of doomed houseplants. Melanie is a former English teacher and a sometime blogger who loves to laugh and make others laugh. In her down time (ha!), she writes romantic comedies and pines after beautiful shoes.
Heather B. Moore is a
USA Today bestselling author. She writes historical thrillers under the pen name H.B. Moore, her latest is
Finding Sheba. Under Heather B. Moore she writes romance and women�s fiction. She�s the co-author of The Newport Ladies Book Club series. Other women�s novels include
Heart of the Ocean, The Fortune Caf�, the Aliso Creek Series, and the Amazon bestselling Timeless Romance Anthology Series.
*Note this post contains affiliate links. Any/all money made through my amazon affiliate account goes back into the blog for giveaways.
Chasing Forever Down by Nikki Godwin
Published March 14th 2013
Age Group: Young Adult Contemporary Romance
Series: Drenaline Surf #1 
Source: ecopy from Author
Summary:
After seventeen-year-old Haley Sullivan meets a mysterious stranger who plays by his own rules, she's more than determined to learn every trick of the trade from the master himself. But her dream-chasing mentor disappears after that night, and according to the local newspapers, he's been dead for years. Knowing he's very much alive, Haley enlists best friend Linzi to join her on a scavenger-hunt-style road trip that ultimately lands them in the surf town of Crescent Cove, California. Mystery guy is no mystery here, though � he's Colby Taylor, the west coast's biggest professional surfer.
If Haley wants to talk to the wave rider again, she'll have to get past his four intimidating bodyguards who are highly skilled in the business of sending starstruck fangirls back to where they belong. Haley is up for the challenge if it means chasing her dreams and escaping the perfectly corporate future that's been planned for her. But dealing with these bodyguards isn't exactly what Haley imagined it'd be. Sure, being thrown off a jet ski sucks, but falling in love with one of them might just be worse.
I really liked the premise of Chasing Forever Down. I am a big fan of beachy summer books and I like scavenger hunt road trip mystery premise, but the actual book fell a bit short for me. I feel like I am in the minority here though. Chasing Forever Down has a really high goodreads rating and great reviews, so if this seems like the kind of book that you would enjoy, you probably will! A lot of other people really really love the romance and story in this one. It just wasn't for me.
I liked the main character Haley, but she just seemed super impulsive to me. She met a guy at a party with her parents one night and they both really hit it off. I thought that first night they hung out and spent together was really cute, but then he leaves and when she tries to track down who he was she found out that he had "died" years ago. So she decides to track him across the country to figure out what is really going on. It just seemed to sudden and kind of crazy to me. But honestly it wouldn't have bugged me as much if she was all for the mystery aspect of him, but she had to go the love route. She just knew him for a couple of house one night and she loves him so much that she is dropping everything and driving across the country? It just seemed a bit obsessive to me.
The other characters we ok but kind of immature. Some of their dialogue was hard to follow, and Colby's friends all rubbed me the wrong way. I just couldn't really connect with anyone, and that made it really hard for me to get into the story. The girls kept doing stunt after stunt to try and get past all of his bodyguards. It started to make them seem like obsessed stalkers. It just didn't feel realistic to me, but like I said a lot of people loved this one.
But don�t just take my word for it.
Check out these reviews from bloggers that LOVED Chasing Forever Down Amber @ Paradise of Page gave it 5 Stars
Francine @ Always Lost in Books gave it 5 Stars
*Note this post contains affiliate links. Any/all money made through my amazon affiliate account goes back into the blog for giveaways.
As a young girl who spent her allowance on Nancy Drew mysteries, Louise realized that one day, she might have a story of her own to tell. Maybe even more than one story. After years focused on raising her children she eventually reconnected with her passion for creative writing. She soon began to craft a large collection of short stories which were published in the inspirational online magazine, Faithhopeandfiction.com. Shortly thereafter, she authored her first novel, Wishless, a contemporary YA, released in 2011.
But don�t just take my word for it. 
