October 30, 2013

Review: Resist by Sarah Crossan


Title: Resist (Breathe #2)
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: October 8th 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Breathe - here
The sequel - and conclusion - to Sarah Crossan's Breathe. Three teen outlaws must survive on their own in a world without air, exiled outside the glass dome that protects what's left of human civilization. Gripping action, provocative ideas, and shocking revelations in a dystopian novel that fans of Patrick Ness and Veronica Roth will devour.

Bea, Alina, and Quinn are on the run. They started a rebellion and were thrown out of the pod, the only place where there's enough oxygen to breathe. Bea has lost her family. Alina has lost her home. And Quinn has lost his privileged life. Can they survive in the perilous Outlands? Can they finish the revolution they began? Especially when a young operative from the pod's Special Forces is sent after them. Their only chance is to stand together, even when terrible circumstances force them apart. When the future of human society is in danger, these four teens must decide where their allegiances lie. Sarah Crossan has created a dangerous, and shattered society in this wrenching, thought-provoking, and unforgettable post-apocalyptic novel.

I'll start by saying that I did not expect that Resist was the conclusion of Breathe, I had the idea that it was a trilogy and is the standard in the dystopias (and other sub-genres), so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that it was a duology. Another thing I did not expect was the added a point of view, now the story is told from the point of view of Bea, Quinn, Alina and Ronan. When I realized that there was another POV my first reaction was ... who is Ronan! then I remembered seeing him in the first book, but it was a minor appearance that´s why I didn´t remember him.

And because I read Resist and Breathe almost one after the other, it was like just resume where I left it, Bea and Quinn were expelled from the dome and are view as terrorists so they have to find the resistance to join them, and meanwhile Alina and co. must seek a new haven and they head towards Sequoia, a place where they hope to find another resistance group. And when they found Sequoia, it is not at all like any of them expected, I'll just say that it has rules and a way of life that´s rather strict and extreme.

The fact that they are now four points of view in this book worked for me, but there were times that I was in despair because now Bea, Quinn and Alina are separated from each other and my desperation was because at the end of each chapter there was a mini-cliffhanger and I was tempted to skip some chapters just to know what happened to a certain character.

About the main characters in this book, Bea and Quinn grow more as a person, they´re stronger and they are seeing their world with new eyes, they´re tired of what´s happening to the people that lives in the dome, they want to make a difference and although Bea does not see herself as someone strong, in this book I saw her a little more sure of herself and making decisions and I felt like she was the center of change and the plot because a lot of people are depending on her. Alina continues to be strong, independent and wanting to change her world. Meanwhile the new point of view is that of Ronan, he´s the son of the former minister of the dome, but in this book we see that he is also a member of the special forces and that he´s  been fighting against the resistance, but because of what happened in the previous book, he isn´t happy with his job anymore and wants to quit, but there isn´t desertion in the army, but Quinn´s father offers him a way out, he must go to the Outlands and look for Quinn and bring him back, if he does this, Quinn's father will help him leave the army.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, the story has a good pace, the parts where some character can not breathe still give me goosebumps, Resist has more action than the previous book and I must say that I was a little surprised for the ending, because as a good dystopian book many characters die, but there was one that I didn´t saw coming, but otherwise it was a good ending. I recommended this duology for fans of dystopian novels.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review.

Waiting On Wednesday (97): Secret & Nearly Gone

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Secret (Elemental #4) by Brigid Kemmerer 
Release date: January 28th 2014
Nowhere is safe. Not even home…

Nick Merrick is stretched to the breaking point.

Keep his grades sky-high or he’ll never escape his hometown.

Keep his brother’s business going or the Merricks will be out on the street.

Keep the secret of where he’s going in the evenings from his own twin—-or he’ll lose his family.

Keep his mind off the hot, self-assured dancer who’s supposed to be his “girlfriend’s” partner.

Of course there’s also the homicidal freak Quinn has taken to hanging around, and the Elemental Guide counting the hours until he can try again to kill the Merrick brothers.

There’s a storm coming. From all sides. And then some.

Nick Merrick, can you keep it together?

Why I'm Waiting?
I love this series and can´t wait to read Nick´s story, especially after reading Breathless.


Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano
Release date: March 25th 2014
Bones meets Fringe in a big, dark, scary, brilliantly-plotted urban thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.

Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother's job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone's skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn't trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn't figure it all out soon—she'll be next.

Why I'm Waiting?
Bones meets Fringe.... I´m sold! I like both TV series and this book sounds really good.

What book are you waiting this week?
Leave your WOW links


Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE. 

October 29, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (22): Scariest Looking Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

 Top Ten Scariest Looking Book Covers
(in no particular order)

Horror isn´t a sub-genre that I like to read because I don´t like to be scared. And from the scary/creepy looking covers that I chose, I ´ve only read Sweetly (And it isn´t a horror book).

Asylum by Madeleine Roux
Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake 

Lockdown (Escape From Furnace #1) by Alexander Gordon Smith
Execution (Escape From Furnace #5) by Alexander Gordon Smith
The Fury (The Fury #1) by Alexander Gordon Smith
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

¿Have you read any of these books? What other scary looking covers made your list?
Leave me your links!


Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE.

October 28, 2013

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Book Journey.
Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.

Click on the image to look description in Goodreads.

Finished reading
These are the books I´ve read this past two weeks. I really enjoyed them all.

Currently reading


What I´m going to read next? 


What are you reading today? 
Leave me your links!

Have a great week!


Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE. 

October 27, 2013

Review: Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone


Title: Time After Time (Time Between Us #2)
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone 
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release date: October 8th 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Time Between Us - here
Calling Anna and Bennett’s romance long distance is an understatement: she’s from 1995 Chicago and he’s a time traveler from 2012 San Francisco. The two of them never should have met, but they did. They fell in love, even though they knew they shouldn't. And they found a way to stay together, against all odds.

It’s not a perfect arrangement, though, with Bennett unable to stay in the past for more than brief visits, skipping out on big chunks of his present in order to be with Anna in hers. They each are confident that they’ll find a way to make things work...until Bennett witnesses a single event he never should have seen (and certainly never expected to). Will the decisions he makes from that point on cement a future he doesn't want?

Told from Bennett’s point of view, Time After Time will satisfy readers looking for a fresh, exciting, and beautifully-written love story, both those who are eager to find out what’s next for Time Between Us's Anna and Bennett and those discovering their story for the first time.

I love romance books like this one, where the romance is not so heavy, there isn´t a lot of drama without some sense, there isn´t much anguish or everyone suffers (or at least I did not feel it like that compared to some other books that I've read lately). It was very refreshing to read a book like Time After Time.

And what I loved the most is that this book from Bennett´s POV, personally I prefer books from the male point of view. Time After Time picks up shortly after the end of the Time Between Us, ** spoiler alert if you have not read the previous book ** Anna and Bennett are finally together and decide to live a long distance relationship for about 17 years apart, since she is in the year 1995 and he lives in 2012, so it's not like they can send emails, text messages or phone calls to keep in touch and because of what happened in the previous book Bennett can not be in 1995 for more than a few days at a time, so they decide to see each other sporadically and at special events, because after all, Bennett must continue his life in 2012, go to school, spend time with friends, etc. So the main problem in their relationship is the distance and the little time they can be together.

But meanwhile Bennett has other problems, because he decides to break one of his golden rules, that one about not intervene and change events or the future of any person, but he does it and by doing those changes they start to have an impact on him physically, it felt like he was paying for the balance that the world or time must have.

Overall, Time After Time is a light read, fast-paced with a beautifully written, captivating, refreshing story and a very cute romance. I really liked this book! even more than its predecessor, it has its sad moment that broke my heart for a moment, but perhaps the only detail that I found was the ending, it felt a bit open to interpretation and I wish it were a little bit more closed, but despite that little detail I just LOVE IT!. This duology definitely worth reading.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

October 26, 2013

Review: Breathe by Sarah Crossan


Title: Breathe (Breathe #1)
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publisher: Greenwillow
Release date: October 2nd 2012

Rating: 4/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository

Inhale. Exhale.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe . . .
The world is dead.
The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen–rich air.

Alina
has been stealing for a long time. She's a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she's never been caught before. If she's careful, it'll be easy. If she's careful.

Quinn
should be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself, too, but even though this is dangerous, it's also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. It isn't every day that the girl of your dreams asks you to rescue her.

Bea
wants to tell him that none of this is fair; they'd planned a trip together, the two of them, and she'd hoped he'd discover her out here, not another girl.

And as they walk into the Outlands with two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered. Will they be able to make it back? Will they want to?

Dystopian/post -apocalyptic is one of my favorites sub-genres and I have read some of them about water scarcity, floods, post-war that contaminate the world, falling in love is prohibited, societies with high rates of teen suicide, etc. . , but I had not read one about what would happen if humans destroyed all the trees on earth and across several generations there was a "switch"  in the world where oxygen levels fall dramatically and it made the air unbreathable. Well this is the world were Alina, Quinn and Bea live.

It had been three generations since the "switch" and some lucky humans live in a dome/pod, where the company BREATHE is the supplier of breathable air. People living within the dome live under a regime of three social classes where Premiums are those with good jobs within the company BREATHE and have enough money to pay extra oxygen tanks which are necessary for practicing any physical activity. Then there are the second class where the stewards and other employees and the last class are the auxiliary (or working class), who spend all day working and do not have enough money to pay for extra oxygen.

Breathe is told from the points of view of Alina, Quinn and Bea. Alina is an auxiliary, she´s strong, smart and purposeful but she´s also a member of the resistance, whose goal is to steal trees from the biospheres within the dome and replant them in the outlands. Which is not in the best interest of the pod minister. Bea is also a auxiliary, she ´s good hearted girl that always try to do right thing and is in love with her best friend Quinn. Quinn is a Premium, he has always had an easy life, but even though he´s rich he isn´t a despot like the rest of the Premiums, he´s a boy who is guided by a pretty face and in that moment he has his eyes set on Alina. So when he and Bea are planning a camping trip outside the dome, they have the oxygen needed for their two days trip, but what they did not expect is to meet with Alina, and Quinn can not resist a pretty face and so he decides to help Alina. So these three teens end up making a trip together and that at least Quinn and Bea did not expect and they end up discovering a world outside the dome different from the one they had been told all their life.

I really really liked this book, the idea is very interesting and original (at least I have not read another book on this subject), it has well-developed main characters and it´s easy to grow fond of them. And there are times on the book that give me goosebumps, especially when some characters can not breathe, that moments were really intense (at least for me) and the outlands are really creepy, with all the drifters (with solar respirators), the before world in ruins...just creepy. Breathe is a book that fans of dystopian novels will enjoy.

Favorite quote
"Breathing is a right, not a privilege, so I'm stealing it back." 

UK Book trailer

October 23, 2013

Review: Blackout by Robison Wells


Title: Blackout (Blackout #1)
Author: Robison Wells
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: October 1st 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 2.5/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository
Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

Blackout feels like a science fiction novel with a dash of apocalyptic. The story revolves around four teens with supernatural powers, X-Men style and we see through their eyes what is happening with all adolescents in the United States. Because there had been several terrorist acts across the United States in recent weeks, the country enters a kind of martial law, where due that the suspected terrorists are teenagers, the government decides to capture all adolescents in the country and take them to some sort of concentration camps where they get a DNA test to determine if they are infected with a virus that is causing these changes in adolescents.

The story is told from the point of view of four teens in the third person : Laura, Alec, Jack and Aubrey. Laura and Alec are terrorists who are trying to harm the country, destroying several important land marks , they belong to a group of teen terrorists who have been trained since childhood for this mission. Both are infected with the virus so they have supernatural powers but what I didn´t understood and isn´t explained in this book is the reason for their mission, because they are destroying dams , monuments and historic buildings with the aim of killing the citizenry and cause chaos.

Meanwhile Jack and Aubrey are ordinary teens, they has been friends since childhood, despite their friendship recently had problems, but after being captured and taken to the "camps", their friendship becomes stronger, both are loyal to each other and there is a romance between them.

Overall, I feel like there were missing a lot of world-building in the story and the story is very slow pace and left me with many questions and I did not know the reason behind this teens terrorists attacks to their own country. I really expected more from this book but unfortunately I didn´t enjoy it.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review.

Waiting On Wednesday (96): Killer Instinct

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Killer Instinct by Shannon Greenland
Release date: May 6th 2014
She’s not evil, but she has certain... urges.

Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. Afterschool job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick.

Why?

Because she might be one herself.

Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals—delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder. But with each visceral rush the line of self-control blurs.

And then a young preschool teacher goes missing. Only to return... in parts.

When Lane excitedly gets involved in the hunt for “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer that has come to her hometown, she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her birth dad and her own dark past. And once the Decapitator contacts Lane directly, Lane knows she is no longer invisible or safe. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim...

Why I'm Waiting?
The story sounds really good and it reminds me a little bit of the TV series - Dexter.

What book are you waiting this week?
Leave your WOW links


Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE. 

October 22, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (21):Top Ten Unusual Character Names

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.

 Top Ten Unusual Character Names
(in no particular order)
1. Karou from Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1) by Laini Taylor: from this book almost all the names are unusual.
2. Cricket Bell from Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss #2) by Stephanie Perkins 
3. Katniss from The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins:  Another trilogy wiyh unusual names.
4. Avry of Kazan from Touch of Power (Healer #1) by Maria V. Snyder 
5. Echo Emerson from Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits #1) by Katie McGarry

6. Wick Tate from Find Me (Find Me #1) by Romily Bernard 
7. Ismae Rienne from Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by R.L. LaFevers
8. Pressia Belze from Pure (Pure #1) by Julianna Baggott 
9. Varen Nethers from Nevermore (Nevermore #1) by Kelly Creagh
Layken Cohen from Slammed (Slammed #1) by Colleen Hoover

Leave me your links!


Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE.

October 21, 2013

Review: Phantom Eyes by Scott Tracey


Title: Phantom Eyes (Witch Eyes #3)
Author: Scott Tracey
Publisher: Flux
Release date: October 8th 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Witch Eyes - here & Demon Eyes - here
Every child in Belle Dam is taught about the feud from an early age. There are ‘our’ people and ‘their’ people. Friends and enemies. Associates and strangers. It’s the kind of town where eyes are always watching, and you don’t need a reason to sell out your neighbors.

But the feud is a lie. As a new wave of fury sweeps through the town, creating a third front to an already overtaxed war, Braden has been broken worse than ever. His innocence? Shattered. His heart? Crushed. His magic? Gone. His new life? Ruined. And this is only the beginning.

Beneath the city lay deep wellsprings of power. The one who controls them is the one who will win the feud. In a city filled with puppet masters, Braden must elude their strings and end the feud once and for all. But first, he must outsmart his father, evade Catherine’s dark magic, regain what was stolen from him, trick a phantom who refuses to die, and foil a demon’s master plan.

Even then, he may not survive. Because power is a problem, and victory comes with a cost…

I've been waiting this book impatiently, I loved the previous book  - Demon Eyes and  I couldn´t wait to know what would happen with Braden, because at the end of the previous book he swears revenge against her boyfriend/ex -boyfriend 's mother .... so I needed to know what was going to happen in this book, because this is the conclusion of the Witch Eyes trilogy.

I really liked seeing the relationship between Braden and his father improves and he and Jason although they don´t have a parent-son relationship, at least they aren´t strangers anymore and I liked that little by little instead of feeling like a stranger in the house of his father, during the course of the book he begins to think of it like a home.

Also something that I really liked is that at last! (finally!!) Trey dropped his blindfold (figurative speaking) and realized that his mother is an evil witch ( hahaha ) and he finally starts to help to some extent Braden with his enemies. I must say that in previous books I did not like Trey as Braden´s boyfriend, because he couldn´t see what was before his eyes, the fact that his mother wanted to kill Braden.

My mainly complaint about this book is that I didn´t see Drew as much I would have liked. I love this character in the previous book and I love the way the way Drew and Trey that they´re frenemies and they banter all the time and Drew flirts with Braden to make Trey jealous. And Drew is Braden good friend because he help him and he even gets to save the life more than once.

Overall, I really liked this book, but my favorite of the trilogy is Demon Eyes. But at last this story that was very like Romeo and Juliet (or Romeo and Romeo)  has a happy ending, and the bad witches and demons have their comeuppance. I really liked the final fight, in which almost all the characters in the story are present and that Braden accomplished that the feud between the rival families (Thorpe and Lansing), reaches a sort of truce agreement. I loved this trilogy and I felt that it has a very good ending.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

October 20, 2013

Review: How to Love by Katie Cotugno


Title: How to Love
Author: Katie Cotugno
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release date: October 1st 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository
Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he’s never seemed to notice that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.

After: Almost three years have passed, and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena’s gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she’s finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn’t want anything to do with him, though she’d be lying if she said Sawyer’s being back wasn’t stirring something in her. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love—twice.

How to Love is a realistic, poignant and beautifully written contemporary novel, but if you are expecting a sweet and fun romance you will not find in the story of Renna and Sawyer, because their love story is complicated, messy and stormy.

The story is told from the point of view of Reena, it has a " before and after". In the before: Renna is 15 years old and has been in love with Sawyer all her life, but he doesn´t know that she exist (romantically speaking because they work together), besides this, Rennas´s  best friend is also in love with him, so when he finally starts dating one of them, the friendship between the girls deteriorates. Sawyer is two years older than Renna, he´s a Don Juan and all the girls at school are pining for him, he likes to party and drinks a lot. And meanwhile Renna is very dedicated to school, in fact if she studies really hard she may graduate a year earlier and she could go to the college of her choice; since her dream is to be a travel writer and travel around the world.

So after all the teenage angst, Renna and Sawyer begin dating  but their romantic relationship is full of angst, is messy and complicated...ending with Renna being pregnant at 16 years old and Sawyer disappearing from her life without a word and without leaving any way to contact him.

In the after: Renna is a mother of a fourteen-month baby girl, she´s taking some classes at the community college, works as a waitress in her parents´s restaurant and is dating a new guy and her life is more or less normal, that´s until Sawyer returns to the city after nearly three years of absence and returns to shake the Renna´s life.

What bothered me a lot when I was reading this story, was mainly in the "after", because Renna allows the mere fact that Sawyer is in town the break her, she changes with him around and she lets him to change her life again, but as the story progress, I realized that it was not all because of Sawyer fault (I would have liked to read his point of view), but also Renna´s because there were so many things happening between them at the end of their relationship that were both their fault. The insecurities, the not being able to speak the truth for fear of being hated, to always be comparing yourself to someone else, to some extent put the expiration date to the relationship is what separates Renna and Sawyer the first time.

How to Love is a poignant, intense, powerful and heartbreaking novel, with a romance full of trouble and angst, but it´s also about second chances in love and life. I really liked it a lot and it plays a very important topic that is teenage pregnancy and I really suffered with Renna when she learns that she is pregnant and realises that all her plans for her future suddenly vanish and also having to talk to their parents . I recommend this book to fans of realistic, intense, poignant, and heartbreaking contemporary novels.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review.

Book trailer

October 17, 2013

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Scintillate by Tracy Clark

Today Tracy Clark and Entangled Teen  are revealing the cover for book 1 in The Key of Light Trilogy, SCILTILLATE. Coming out February 2014!

On to the reveal!


About the Book
SCINTILLATE
Author: Tracy Clark
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Pages: 320
ISBN: 978-1622661459

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble
Cora Sandoval’s mother disappeared when she was five and living in Ireland. Since then, Dad has been more than overprotective and Cora is beginning to chafe under his confines. But even more troubling is the colorful light she is suddenly seeing around people. Everyone, that is, except herself—she glows a brilliant, sparkling silver.

Troubled by these strange flickerings and fearing she is being stalked, Cora is inexplicably drawn to Finn, a gorgeous Irish exchange student who makes her feel safe. Their attraction is instant, magnetic, and primal—but her father disapproves and Finn’s mother orders him home to Ireland upon hearing he’s fallen in love. After a fight with her father, Cora flees to Ireland, both to follow Finn and to look for her missing mother.

There she meets another silver-haloed person and discovers the meaning of her newfound powers and their role in a conspiracy spanning centuries—a conspiracy that could end her life and change mankind forever.

Scintillate is the first book in this lush and exciting new trilogy, full of romance, adventure and metaphysical mystery.

                                      Exclusive Excerpt 


Finn began to play. Voices descended into a respectful hush. Soft strums of the guitar lifted and fell on shafts of daylight from the windows. A small patch of sun warmed my exposed neck as I listened. The orange beads of his bracelet flashed as he plucked the strings with slender fingers. His head hung over the guitar in reverent concentration.
His playing was amazing, sweet and peaceful. For a while I let go of how bizarre my life had become. I was entranced long before Finn closed his eyes and opened his mouth to sing. His voice was rich, smooth suede, perfectly suited for the blues: soulful and vulnerable. The kind of voice that reaches inside and squeezes what’s tender.
When he sang an Irish bar song called “The Wild Rover,” he got the entire crowd to join in on the chorus. A couple of times during his performance, his gaze fell on me and lingered as if he sang directly to me. I rested my chin on my hand, hiding my smile behind my fingers. The last song was in a language I didn’t understand, but my soul spoke that language. Deep inside, something cracked open so that a bit of my truest self could peek out. His music was bluesy and mournful, eerily familiar, and it opened my heart in locked places. A tear landed on my wrist.
When the final chord of the last song reverberated through the coffeehouse, the audience jumped to its feet and applauded wildly. The force of energy from the crowd knocked the breath out of me, making me dizzy. I dared a look at the people in the room. The colors were unbelievable! Such power. It rolled toward Finn in a wave, a tsunami in slow motion. I had the impulse to leap in front of him, to protect him from it.
My body jerked in response to the thought, and I squeezed the sides of the wooden chair, willing myself to sit still. I couldn’t trust myself and the strong urge to protect him. But from what? The big, bad colors I could see but that were invisible to everyone else? He’d think I was crazy.
Maybe I was.
A chill spidered up my spine. The man with the crazy eyes and pure white aura leaned against the brick wall a couple feet away, staring intently at me. Icy fear spiked through me, making my fingers tingle and my breath come in quick bursts. The sounds of the room fell away. My heart sped and my aura sparked as I saw the roiling ball of the crowd’s energy pass over the man and collide with Finn. But rather than crush him, the energy crashed and blended with his own bright aura, making it grow and pulse fiercely. He seemed to absorb the light until the room grew dim to my eyes.
Untouched by the energy, the strange man moved closer and closer to me. I called out to Dun, but he couldn’t hear me over the shouts and clapping. I was so small in my chair amid the standing crowd. The man and his dark eyes were all I could see. I tried to leap up to run, to grab Dun’s arm, to call for help, but my chest jerked toward the stranger as if I’d been punched in the spine. I couldn’t draw breath, couldn’t move through the thick ice of my draining energy and rising panic. I was hit in the face with a blast of air. Then, a sudden flash of white.
The world tilted sideways, and I slid off.


About Tracy:
Tracy Clark is a young-adult writer because she believes teens deserve to know how much they matter and that regardless of what they're going through, they aren't alone. In other words, she writes books for her teen self.

She grew up a "valley girl" in Southern California but now resides in her home state of Nevada with her daughter and son. She's an unapologetic dog person who is currently owned by a cat. She is the recipient of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Work in Progress Grant and a two-time participant in the prestigious Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program.

Her debut novel, SCINTILLATE, was inspired by her enchantment with metaphysics as a teen, seeing it as the real magic in life. Tracy is a part-time college student, a private pilot, and an irredeemable dreamer.



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October 16, 2013

Waiting On Wednesday (95): The Taking

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

The Taking (The Taking #1) by Kimberly Derting
Release date: April 29th 2014
A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

What book are you waiting this week?
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Don´t forget to enter my current giveaway:
October New Release Giveaway Hop (INTL) - HERE.