Blog Tour & Giveaway: You Were Here (Cori McCarthy)

Title: You Were Here
Author: Cori McCarthy
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
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Jaycee is about to accomplish what her older brother Jake couldn’t: live past graduation.
Jaycee is dealing with her brother’s death the only way she can – by re-creating Jake’s daredevil stunts. The ones that got him killed. She’s not crazy, okay? She just doesn’t have a whole lot of respect for staying alive.
Jaycee doesn’t expect to have help on her insane quest to remember Jake. But she’s joined by a group of unlikely friends – all with their own reasons for completing the dares and their own brand of dysfunction: the uptight, ex-best friend, the heartbroken poet, the slacker with Peter Pan syndrome, and… Mik. He doesn’t talk, but somehow still challenges Jayce to do the unthinkable—reveal the parts of herself that she buried with her brother.
Cori McCarthy’s gripping narrative defies expectation, moving seamlessly from prose to graphic novel panels and word art poetry, perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Jennier Niven, and Jandy Nelson. From the petrifying ruins of an insane asylum to the skeletal remains of the world’s largest amusement park,You Were Here takes you on an unforgettable journey of friendship, heartbreak and inevitable change.

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 B & N * BooksAMillion * Indigo * IndieBound

Praise for You Were Here

“The mix of forms as well as the insights each character gleans through their urban explorations render this book both readable and teachable on multiple levels.” –Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, STARRED Review

“Readers who appreciate stories of searching for personal truths will be happy to join this meaningful quest for identity and independence.” –Booklist

“You Were Here is wrenchingly beautiful in its honest and achingly accurate portrayal of grief and how it breaks us--and the way unconditional friendship puts us back together.” -Jo Knowles, award-winning author of See You At Harry’s and Read Between the Lines

“Through razor-sharp wit, no-holds-barred momentum, and heart-wrenching twists, Cori McCarthy dares you to climb through the broken, abandoned wreckage of the past, stand on the edge of the world, and face something even scarier: the truth.” -K.A. Barson, author of 45 Pounds (More or Less andCharlotte Cuts it Out

"The urban explorers of You Were Here dive deep into the forgotten man-made spaces all around them--and their own feelings of loss, love, and fear. McCarthy deftly intertwines the characters' stories, filling them with authentic pain and heartache as well as soaring moments of grace and humor. I dare you to read it!" --Maggie Lehrman, author of The Cost of All Things

Cori McCarthy studied poetry and screenwriting before falling in love with writing for teens at Vermont College of Fine Arts. From a military family, Cori was born on Guam and lived a little bit of everywhere before she landed in Michigan. Learn more about her books at CoriMcCarthy.com

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Giveaway link for two copies of You Were Here:

Runs 3/1-3/31 (US & Canada only)

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I Am A Reader Blog Tour, Spotlight, & Giveaway: Not Always Happenstance (Rachael Anderson)

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Not Always Happenstance by Rachael Anderson Lani has lived in Hana, Hawaii for five years. She’s learned to surf, fish, dive, and manage her grandmother’s bed and breakfast. She’s also learned to take one day at a time the way it should be taken—relaxed and unrushed, savoring every moment. But, like a large wave on the brink of breaking, her life is about to crash out of control. A proposal of marriage, a conniving grandmother, a cryptic Asian woman, and a handsome guest, and suddenly everything calm begins to churn, everything clear becomes confused, and all that was normal segues into peculiar. As Lani struggles against the current to hold her ground, she realizes that she can either continue to fight and eventually lose, or take a take a leap of faith, hold her breath, and ride the wave wherever it takes her. ***This book is part of the Power of the Matchmaker series that features one recurring character—the match maker—but it is a STAND-ALONE novel.***

  

Author Rachael Anderson A USA Today bestselling author, Rachael Anderson is the mother of four and is pretty good at breaking up fights, or at least sending guilty parties to their rooms. She can't sing, doesn't dance, and despises tragedies. But she recently figured out how yeast works and can now make homemade bread, which she is really good at eating.

Website

  Blog Tour $50 Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 2/29/16 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. 

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Greenwillow Books Spotlight: Burn (Elissa Sussman)

PaperBook, 272 pages
Expected publication: January 19th 2016 by Greenwillow Books

After helping to rescue Princess Aislynn, Elanor has finally rejoined the rebel camp she calls home. Stolen from her parents at a young age and forced into service by the Wicked Queen, Elanor now wants nothing more than to see the queen removed from power. But Elanor has secrets, mistakes she’s spent years trying to forget, and the closer the rebels get to the throne, the harder it is for Elanor to keep her past hidden away.
With fellow rebels on her side—including Princess Aislynn, Thackery, and the handsome and mysterious Matthias—it is time for Elanor to make a decision. Will she protect her secrets? Or risk everything to save the people she loves?
The thrilling companion to Elissa Sussman’s masterful and original fairy tale, Stray, that will appeal to readers of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and fans of Wicked, Into the Woods, and the Disney princess movies.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo 

Elissa Sussman is a writer, a reader and a pumpkin pie eater.
She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and in a previous life managed animators and organized spreadsheets at some of the best animation studios in the world, including Nickelodeon, Disney, Dreamworks and Sony Imageworks. You can see her name in the credits of THE CROODS, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG and TANGLED.
She currently lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and their rescue mutt, Basil.

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PRAISE

“Sussman delightfully mixed dystopian tension with retold fairy tales, and the result is something wholly original.”~Booklist

FFBC Blog Tour, Spotlight, & Giveaway: 18 Thoughts (Jamie Ayres)

18 Thoughts (My So Called Afterlife #3)
by Jamie Ayres
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Release Date: January 27th 2015

Olga Gay Worontzoff left the Underworld for her final year of high school anxious for things to return to normal, but fate has other plans.
The new hottie at school reads her thoughts but nobody else’s. Her best friend wakes up from his coma acting like a completely different person. Caught in a world that’s a mix of familiar and supernatural, she must confront what she will—or won’t—do to bring him back and stare down her own perceived inadequacies to face a couple of tenacious demons, figurative and literal.
Everything she thought she knew about reality will change as she walks the line between past and present, fear and faith, love and loyalty.
And by the end of a heartbreaking year, she might be forced to realize “normal” in the conventional sense of the word is the one thing she may never achieve.

1.       What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

A million thoughts went into telling Olga’s story in 18 Thoughts and the entire My So-Called Afterlife trilogy. Of course, when  I wrote the beginning in the first book 18 Things, I knew there’d have to be an end. A final chapter. I thought I knew it before I wrote it, but I didn’t. In the end, I let my characters take over. But throughout the series, my inspiration remained the same, to deliver a message of holding onto hope in the midst of darkness. In this life, there will be pain, but I believe all the heartache is worth it in the end. Life is full of surprises :-)

2.       Who is your favorite character in the book?

I'd have to say Tammy. When I wrote her in, she was meant to be a minor character, not part of the Jedi Order at all (what the circle of friends call themselves in the trilogy). But she just grew into this person I couldn't ignore. I found myself wanting to show the broken girl behind the beautiful cheerleader stereotype. If I ever write a novella that catches up with the Jedi Order ten years down the road, I have BIG plans for Tammy! Her story is one I wouldn't even mind continuing in an adult novel. We'll see . . .

3.       Which came first, the title or the novel?

The novel! It had many working titles until it got signed as a trilogy, and then I figured I'd stick with the number '18' because it's good branding . . . although admittedly, people get a bit confused keeping straight what happened.

Me getting questioned daily: "Wait, did that happen in 18 Things, 18 Truths, or 18 Thoughts?"

Me: *shrugs* "I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast!"

4.       What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?

The Prologue from Nate's point of view because my fourteen-year-old daughter, Kaylee, helped me write it! She's a more talented writer than I am already . . . if only she'd stop moving for five minutes and sit down in her chair to write. Okay, I'll stop before I'm in full downward "DO YOU KNOW WHAT A GIFT YOU HAVE?!" spiral mode, hahaha!

5.       Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you've learned as a writer from then to now?

That coffee is my friend. Just remembering IhavecoffeeIhavecoffeeIhavecoffee gets me through the night to write (I'm a middle school English teacher by day). And I'm totally serious here. I did not drink coffee before I started writing in 2009. It changed my life!

6.       What do you like most about the cover of the book?

I thought I liked the first cover my publisher did for 18 Things, until they redid it before the release of the second book (which was what again?! YESSS! 18 Truths! See not so hard, right? Gold star for you!). They redid it so they could brand the whole series better, and when the artist, Michelle Johnson, sent me the cover for 18 Thoughts, I tried to keep my cool, which lasted about one minute because IT WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME!!! I love how she kept the water and sky element for each cover, but gave each novel its own defining element . . . the lightning for 18 Things that represented Conner's accident and what got this whole ball rolling, the moon and stars in 18 Truths because Olga ventures into the darkness of the Underworld to save her friend, and the beautiful sunset in 18 Thoughts for the happy ending. Then she used all the '18' stuff for the words to overlay the scene on the cover . . . 18 Things has Olga's life list of '18 Things' that her therapist demands she completes, 18 Truths has '18 Truths' Olga discovers on her journey into the Underworld, and 18 Thoughts represents '18 Thoughts' Nate has that are listed in the beginning of various chapters in the book.

7.       What new release book are you looking most forward to in 2015?

Oh my gosh, such a hard question, but I'd have to say Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (coming out October 6th!). I met her a LeakyCon (now GeakyCon) last August when I got to be part of a panel on world building with other authors from my publisher. I honestly had never read her books . . . you know the dilemma, sooo many books, so little time. Story of our lives. But she was just the eptimoe of cool, so I rushed over and bought both her books and devoured them in the hotel room. I'm so excited that Carry On will focus on Simon and Baz from her novel, Fangirl! 

8.       What was your favorite book in 2014?

Not to sound redundant, but Fangirl! WHAT WAS I LIVING FOR BEFORE RAINBOW ROWELL'S BOOKS?! Oh yeah, Harry Potter.

9.       What’s up next for you?

After finishing my trilogy with the 18 Thoughts release, I'm having a bit of an identify crisis as a writer with no editor breathing down my neck, lol. I have a MILLION story ideas and can't seem to pick which one to focus on. I'll reach a hundred pages in a manuscript, only to pause that story and start a new one. In fact, I started a new novel tonight! After finishing this crazy trilogy, I think I'm allowed the luxury to play a little though. My goal is to definitely submit a new YA novel by the end of this year.

10.   Is there anything that you would like to add?

Thanks for having me . . . and remember, coffee is your friend!

Follow the 18 Thoughts by Jamie Ayres Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Jamie Ayres writes young adult paranormal love stories by night and teaches young adults as a Language Arts middle school teacher by day. When not at home on her laptop or at school, she can often be found at a local book store grabbing random children and reading to them. So far, she has not been arrested for this. Although she spent her youthful summers around Lake Michigan, she now lives in Florida with her prince charming, two children (sometimes three based on how Mr. Ayres is acting), and a basset hound. She really does have grandmothers named Olga and Gay but unlike her heroine, she's thankfully not named after either one of them. She loves lazy pajama days, the first page of a good book, stupid funny movies, and sharing stories with fantastic people like you. Her books include the first two installments of her trilogy, 18 Things and 18 Truths. Visit her online via Twitter, Facebook, or at www.jamieayres.com.

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I Am A Reader Spotlight & Giveaway: Hidden Identities (Sweet & Sassy Anthology)

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Sweet & Sassy Anthology: Hidden Identities Readers will be delighted with nine sweet, contemporary romance novelettes in Sweet & Sassy: Hidden Identities. In this charming anthology, you will fall in love again and again. THE BEST OF ME by Paige Timothy Becky is a cancer survivor who has been blogging about her journey. She's shocked to find that Josh, her one-time love and now-famous oncologist, is the main speaker at the symposium she’s been asked to attend. Has fate given them a second chance at a future together, or just a shot at miserably ever after? SECOND-HAND HEARTS by Jo Noelle When Elena sees Chase for the first time, his turquoise eyes and tousled blond hair convince her that she might believe in insta-love. Just in time, her brain takes over, reminding her that her business is in trouble, making the future uncertain—not a good time for love. But being with Chase is as easy as following her heart, until she finds he has a secret big enough to break it. FIRST LOVE, SECOND CHOICE by Lindzee Armstrong When wedding planner Keslee gets asked on a date by her long-lost high school crush, Bryce, everything should be perfect. But Bryce mistakes Keslee for her deceased twin sister, Jadyn. And she doesn’t correct him. Now they’re unexpectedly working together. Keslee knows the charade can’t last much longer, and fears she’ll lose Bryce forever when she tells him the truth. HACKED by Stephanie Connelley Worlton NSA data analyst Samantha Perry never being an introverted computer geek could get dangerous until she digs a little too deep into a greedy blackhat’s business, forcing her to change her identity and relocate. As She risks everything to try to close the case, but may end up putting a nail in her own casket. And if she doesn’t, Seth, her hot new neighbor, just might. TO LOVE AND PROTECT by Ruth Roberts First Son Daxon Hayward has refused a secret service detail since the day his father was elected President. This time the threat against Daxon is very real, and his father plants an undercover agent to protect him, Lorelei Davis who is capable and beautiful. She’s received her assignment: Protect the First Son, don’t let him know she is an agent, and don’t fall in love. CLOSING TIME by Candice N. Toone Chef Will Morrison can’t help himself after watching Kelsey sit alone at a table waiting for a blind date. When he steps in to save her from being stood up, he expects to exchange dull first-date pleasantries, but finds himself drawn in by her quick wit and spunk. Will hears himself confirming plans for a second date only to realize that she still believes he’s someone else. SINK OR SWIM by Laura D. Bastian Shelly can’t believe she’s fallen for another cheater. The last few weeks at the gym swimming next to Brandon had almost convinced her she could date again. Brandon’s excited to be back home with a career that can finally hold a candle to his twin brother’s success. When Shelly suddenly turns cold, Brandon can’t help wondering if it has something to do with his brother. WRITE AND WRONG by Kaye P. Clark Jon Patterson is burned out. After publishing a series of blockbuster novels under his pen name, he’s hit a brick wall. He escapes to a rural town in Idaho where he meets Abby, the local librarian. She ignites his imagination and quickens his heart. Without the pressure of his pen name, Jon is free to be himself. But will he lose Abby when she learns his secret? UNDERCOVER LOVER by James C. Duckett Agent Johnny Anderson is struggling with an investigation that could make or break his career. However, it’s love at first sight when beautiful and witty Hannah moves into the neighborhood. Will Johnny lose Hannah when she finds out his cover story is a façade? As things get hotter between them, his love for her might endanger her life.

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Blog Tour Giveaway $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 6/25/15 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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