WWW Wednesdays July 31, 2013

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Goodreads
for more information about the books listed below.

What are you currently reading?

 The Flower of Isbelline (Queen of the Realm of Faerie #2) by Heidi Garrett
I'm lovin' this series

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Listening to this one

What did you recently finish reading?

 The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn

 Nandana's Mark (Queen of the Realm of Faerie #1)

by Heidi Garrett

The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton 

What do you think you will read next?

 The Dragon Carnivale (Queen of the Realm of Faerie #3) by Heidi Garrett

What's on your WWW this week?

Leave me a comment and

I'll stop by to check out your reads.

Follow The Book Bag on bloglovin'

or by email (option on the sidebar)

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!
I have a bunch of winners to announce ~ hopefully later today. 

HEIST by Laura Pauling

Can one decision change the past?

Jack Brodie has a sixth sense that someone has been watching him. Following him.

One night he travels back in time to one of the world’s largest art thefts, known as the Gardner Heist. Why that one moment in time? And what does it mean for Jack?

When he returns, his world is different. His best friend is rougher, meaner. His dad hasn't been around in years. And then there’s Jetta. The girl who took over his heart the moment she stepped into his life. No one is safe.

Each time Jack goes back to the heist to fix his mistakes, he returns to face the fallout. Disaster strikes in the present until Jack must make a choice. His family and his own happiness. Or the girl he loves. Except, he learns that his sixth sense was right.

Someone has been watching him and wants him dead. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

Genre: YA

Release date: August 15, 2013

My thoughts about HEIST ~~

What an amazing ride this book was! I have to admit that the story started out confusing for me. But that just made me want to continue reading. I knew it would all make sense eventually, that's the way it is with time travel. I love the idea of time travel and the opportunity of going back in time to make a different decision in your life and having the opportunity of seeing how things change, for the good or the bad.

That's what happens to Jack. He doesn't understand at first that he is time traveling, things are just different. In trying to make his own life come out differently, he totally changes the lives of those around him. Should one really try to change the past?

I love this part. Words to live by?

'I know truth. No one is perfect. No life is perfect. Someone has it worse. Someone has it better. Take each day and enjoy.'

I thoroughly enjoyed HEIST and love the way the author wrote about the mystery of the Garner heist and wove art history into her story. Laura is a wonderful writer and I am excited to read more of her stories.

About the author

Laura Pauling writes about spies, murder and mystery for the young at heart. She lives the cover of suburban mom/author perfectly, from the minivan to the home-baked snickerdoodles, while hiding her secret missions and covert operations. But shh. Don't tell anyone.

And her kids wonder what she does all day while they're at school; or why on Monday mornings she's a bit grumpy. Living the life of a secret agent isn't easy, but someone has to do it.

This may or may not be what she really looks like. And she may or may not actually bake cookies.

You decide.

A Spy Like Me, her YA debut novel, and the sequel, Heart of an Assassin are now available. The Almost Assassin, the prequel to A Spy Like Me is a short story also found in the In His Eyes Anthology but now available separately.

Connect with Laura

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

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or by email (option on the sidebar)

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Debt Collector Season 1 Blitz

Synopsis

Season One of the Debt Collector serial with all nine episodes of the first season.

Season 1 is only $.99 right now ~ get all 9 episodes!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What's your life worth on the open market?

A debt collector can tell you precisely.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

The nine episodes of the Debt Collector serial are collectively 125k words or about 500 pages. This dark and gritty future-noir is about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going into debt risks a lot more than your credit rating.

For more info about the Debt Collector serial, see DebtCollectorSeries.com

Contains mature content and themes.

For young-adult-appropriate thrills, see Susan's bestselling Mindjack series.

Episode List

Delirium - Debt Collector 1

Agony - Debt Collector 2

Ecstasy - Debt Collector 3

Broken - Debt Collector 4

Driven - Debt Collector 5

Fallen - Debt Collector 6

Promise - Debt Collector 7

Ruthless - Debt Collector 8

Passion - Debt Collector 9

Book Links

Debt Collector Season 1 on Amazon

Season 1 is only $.99 right now ~ all 9 episodes!

Debt Collector (Episodes 1-3) on Amazon

Debt Collector (Episodes 4-6) on Amazon

Debt Collector (Episodes 7-9) on Amazon

The Debt Collector Official Webpage

The Debt Collector Facebook Page

About the Author

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling young adult SF Mindjack Trilogy. The just-released Debt Collector series is her more grown-up SF, meant for ages 17+.

Susan grew up in California, got a bunch of engineering degrees (B.S. Aerospace Engineering, M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering) and worked everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). She designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). Now that she writes novels, her business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist," but she mostly sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets paid to make stuff up.

All her engineering skills come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mindpowers, future dystopic worlds, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. For her stories, of course. Just ignore that stuff in the basement.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as she can handle.

You can find her on Facebook way too often.

Or you can reach her the old-fashioned way:

susankayequinn (at) comcast (dot) net

Author Links

Website | Facebook | The Mindjack Trilogy

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or by email (option on the sidebar)

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Book Spotlight and a Giveaway! White Lines by Jennifer Banash

White Lines

A gritty, atmospheric coming of age tale set in 1980s New York City.

Seventeen-year-old Cat is living every teenager’s dream: she has her own apartment on the Lower East Side and at night she’s club kid royalty, guarding the velvet rope at some of the hottest clubs in the city. The night with its crazy, frenetic, high-inducing energy—the pulsing beat of the music, the radiant, joyful people and those seductive white lines that can ease all pain—is when Cat truly lives. But her daytime, when real life occurs, is more nightmare than dream. Having spent years suffering her mother’s emotional and physical abuse, and abandoned by her father, Cat is terrified and alone—unable to connect to anyone or anything. But when someone comes along who makes her want to truly live, she’ll need to summon the courage to confront her demons and take control of a life already spinning dangerously out of control.

Both poignant and raw, White Lines is a gripping tale and the reader won’t want to look away. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

I read this book back in May and as disturbing as the situation and the topic was, I still loved the story. 

You can read my thoughts here. 

About the author

Jennifer Banash was born and raised in New York City. She now lives in Southern California with her beagle, Sigmund, and her vast collection of designer shoes.

Connect with Jennifer

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow The Book Bag on bloglovin'

or by email (option on the sidebar)

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

On Tour and an Excerpt: Front Page Fatality by LynDee Walker

Crime reporter Nichelle Clarke’s days can flip from macabre to comical with a beep of her police scanner. Then an ordinary accident story turns extraordinary when evidence goes missing, a prosecutor vanishes, and a sexy Mafia boss shows up with the headline tip of a lifetime.

As Nichelle gets closer to the truth, her story gets more dangerous. Armed with a notebook, a hunch, and her favorite stilettos, Nichelle races to splash these shady dealings across the front page before this deadline becomes her last. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

Excerpt

“Nichelle, what a great job you did on the murder conviction!” Shelby put her hands on her tiny hips and stuck out her inversely-proportionate chest, straining the cotton of her simple cornflower t-shirt. “Though I’m pretty sure the prosecutor was approaching the bench, not the beach.”

My temper flared, but before I opened my mouth to tell her that quickly pounding out the day’s lead story was different than writing up the garden club meetings she covered before her big move to the copy desk, Bob cleared his throat.

“That one’s on me, since I edited that story, Shelby,” he said, before he dismissed her with a promise that deadlines would be adhered to by all.

“Sorry, chief.” I shrugged at Bob as Shelby’s spiky black hair disappeared into the maze of cubicles. “Bench, beach. Potato, tomato.”

Bob chuckled before he turned to the features editor. I tuned out what they were talking about. For the most part, I preferred hard news writing to any other kind.

I had grabbed the police report on the first drug dealer murder from my file drawer on my way into the meeting, and I pulled it out and read it again. Noah Leon Smith, age twenty-six, had died the Friday before Memorial Day of a massive head injury inflicted by a .45 caliber bullet. He’d been found sprawled across his own sofa in a neighborhood that saw more than its fair share of violence. The easy assumption was that he’d been killed by another dealer, or maybe a desperate customer. But now did a second victim prove that easy assumption faulty?

My eyes scanned the detective’s narrative with that in mind, and four simple lines jumped out at me like a pair of old sneakers at a Manolo collection debut.

Bathroom sink, lower cabinet: four kilograms beige powder, two large plastic bags dried, green leafy substance. Upper cabinet: fifteen large bags containing tablets, various sizes and colors. Lab results: powder: heroin. Green leafy: marijuana. Tablets: Oxycontin, Vicodin, Zoloft, Effexor, Ri- talin. Kitchen, freezer compartment: three paper grocery sacks containing a total of $257,400 in large bills.

I’d dismissed it before. Sure, a business rival or a junkie would have stolen the drugs and the money—if they had time, knew where to find it, and weren’t already flying on a sample of Noah Smith’s pharmaceuticals. But another dealer with holes where he shouldn’t have them made me wonder if the crime scenes were similar. If the new victim still had a house full of smack and cash, now that was a story.

My fingers wound around a lock of my hair, my thoughts hijacked by scenes from old Charles Bronson movies as I considered the possibility the shooter was more interested in payback than a payday. That could be a very sexy story.

Bob’s endearingly cheesy dismissal snapped me out of my reverie. “All right, folks,” he said every morning. “My office is not newsworthy, so get out and go find me something to print.”

Check out the other stops on the tour over at

CLP Blog Tours for more excerpts

About the author

LynDee Walker grew up in the land of stifling heat and amazing food most people call Texas, and wanted to be Lois Lane from the time she could say the words “press conference.” An award-winning journalist, she traded cops and deadlines for burp cloths and onesies when her oldest child was born.

Writing the Headlines in Heels mysteries gives her the best of both worlds. LynDee adores her family, her readers, and enchiladas. She often works out tricky plot points while walking off the enchiladas. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she is working on her next novel.

Connect with LynDee

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Follow The Book Bag on bloglovin'
or by email (option on the sidebar)

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

On Vacation and a Giveaway: RAGBRAI 2013

It's RAGRAI time!! 

 For the second year in a row, I am going to be the sag wagon for my daughter's bike trek across Iowa.

What is a sag wagon, you ask? 

"A sag wagon is a support vehicle for cyclists. As a general rule, cyclists on tour call the vehicle a sag wagon, while racers prefer the term 'broom wagon'. In either case, the sag wagon can be a vital part of the team which support cyclists along their journey. On long tours and trips, many cyclists grow quite attached to the sag wagon and its drivers, thanks to the comfort that the sag wagon provides."

So, that will be me, bringing comfort to a couple of cyclists.

RAGBRAI is a 7 day bike ride across the middle of Iowa. This year the route is almost 405 miles! YIKES! 

Here is a map of the route. 

I'm sure glad I will be driving the vehicle and not a bike.  

Since we will be on road for 9 days total, posts here at The Book Bag are going to be scarce. Last year, I created a post to go up each day and asked you all to leave encouraging words for my riders (in exchange for a chance at some giveaways). This year I am not that organized and time is running out. *sigh* 

The gals really, really enjoyed the comments that you left last year and they helped make the journey more fun for them. They were always asking what the latest comments were.  

This year, there will be one giveaway but you will have chances to leave comments every day for more chances to win. Like I said, they really loved and appreciated all the comments. 

Click here if you want to find out more about RAGBRAI

And now the giveaway!

You get extra entries if you come back each day to tweet or leave comments for my riders. When I get back, I will select 7 names, one for each day of the ride. The winners will be able to select a book (up to $10) from either Amazon.com or The Book Depository.

So be sure to come back each day 
to give these gals some support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check the sidebar for my other current giveaways!

Book Spotlight and a Giveaway! Baker Towers and News From Heaven by Jennifer Haigh

Baker Towers

and

News From Heaven

Today I am spotlighting two books. They are both by the same author and they are connected. News from Heaven is a book of stories about some of the characters the author writes about in Baker Towers. I have read both of these books and loved the characters and the stories. You can read my thoughts about Baker Towers here and News from Heaven here.

Bakerton is a community of company houses and church festivals, of union squabbles and firemen's parades. Its neighborhoods include Little Italy, Swedetown, and Polish Hill. For its tight-knit citizens -- and the five children of the Novak family -- the 1940s will be a decade of excitement, tragedy, and stunning change.

Baker Towers is a family saga and a love story, a hymn to a time and place long gone, to America's industrial past, and to the men and women we now call the Greatest Generation. It is a feat of imagination from an extraordinary voice in American fiction, a writer of enormous power and skill. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

The bestselling author of Faith and The Condition returns with a collection of unforgettable short stories inspired by a Pennsylvania coal-mining town and the people who call it home.

When her iconic novel Baker Towers was published in 2005, it was hailed as a modern classic--"compassionate and powerful . . . a song of praise for a too-little-praised part of America, for the working families whose toils and constancy have done so much to make the country great" (Chicago Tribune). Its young author, Jennifer Haigh, was "an expert natural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity" (New York Times).

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding--sometimes cruelly--succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming. A solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. With a revolving cast of characters--many familiar to fans of Baker Towers--these stories explore how our roots, the families and places in which we are raised, shape the people we eventually become.

News from Heaven looks unflinchingly at the conflicting human desires for escape and for connection, and explores the enduring hold of home. ~~ from Goodreads

About the author

Jennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Her most recent novel, FAITH (HarperCollins, 2010), tells the story of a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child. Her previous novels include the New York Times bestsellers THE CONDITION and BAKER TOWERS, winner of the 2006 PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the 2004 PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction.

Jennifer Haigh's next book, a collection of short stories entitled NEWS FROM HEAVEN, will be published in February 2013. In it she returns to the landscape of Bakerton, the western Pennsylvania coal town that is the setting for BAKER TOWERS. Characters from that novel -- indomitable Joyce Novak, her eccentric sister Dorothy and mysterious younger brother Sandy -- will return for encore performances.

Haigh was raised in Pennsylvania and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2002. Her short stories have been published widely, in The Atlantic, Granta, Ploughshares and many other places, including the forthcoming Best American Short Stories 2012. She lives in the Boston area.

Connect with Jennifer

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

I have Baker Towers and News from Heaven to giveaway!

Both books are set in in Bakerton and I want one lucky person to have them both.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Guest Post and a Giveaway! Why I Don't Hate Jar-Jar (or the Prequels) by Trisha Slay

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in October of last year and immediately announced they would be making a new Star Wars trilogy starting at Episode VII, the fan universe exploded with a heady mix of anticipation and anxiety. What kind of movies would Disney make? Would they bring back the most beloved characters from the original trilogy? Could they recapture the original magic? Would they, could they possibly get it right?

Even in the midst of the horror and destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy, just about every news source ran at least one article on the acquisition and announcement. As a lifelong Star Wars fangirl, I spent quite a bit of time following the coverage. Until I had to make myself stop reading the articles. Why did I stop? Because the commentary was getting too negative, too mean, too ugly. Every article I read made it a point to mention the disappointments and failures of the most recent prequel trilogy. A few mentioned the "horror" of Jar Jar Binks.

One article went so far as to say the Star Wars prequels were "universally reviled."

Ouch. That is too harsh...and I would even go so far as to say it's not true.

First of all, let's have a reality check. The prequels made a lot of money. Obscene amounts of money. Last time I checked, it is not accurate to label a motion picture a failure if it brings in a net profit on worldwide box office sales of $500 million--a profit margin that was exceeded by all three of the Star Wars prequel movies. So it is safe to say, with a net profit of over $2 billion, that the prequel trilogy was financially successful. Therefore, the movies would be considered neither a failure nor a disappointment from a certain point of view...a business perspective. And let's face it, Lucasfilm and Disney are in the entertainment business.

But what about the art? What about the magic of the original films?

OK, I'll be the first person to admit that the recent movies were not critically-acclaimed masterpieces. Some of the dialogue was beyond bad. (I hate sand, but I love you? Ewwww.) CGI technology often took the place of storytelling. At times, the movies seemed cartoonish and ridiculous. Yes, in some scenes, Jar Jar got to be pretty annoying.

That said, before any original trilogy fans get too high and mighty on the "original trilogy is SO superior to the new movies" bandwagon, let us take a moment to remember our roots. Maybe you were too busy playing with your Kenner action figures or lightsaber dueling with wrapping paper tubes to remember how poorly the original trilogy movies were received by critics. But, surely, I am not the only fan who remembers that the original trilogy received its fair share of negative criticism?

Which is why Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel felt it necessary to go on Nightline in 1983 to defend Star Wars.

If you don't want to listen to the entire 7 minutes and 35 seconds of that clip, I understand. I can't listen to the darned thing without wishing I could Force choke John Simon while cooing, "I find your lack of imagination disturbing."

Let me hit some of the highlights of what Mr Simon had to say about Return of the Jedi and the entire original trilogy:

• When you have a film that's 90% special effects...you might just as well be watching an animated cartoon 
• You have three lousy actors in the main roles who don't contribute much flesh and blood 
• You have ghastly dialog, terrible plotting, miserable characterization 

Hmmm...sound familiar? I think I've heard every one of these insults hurled at the new movies.

That said, I'm not entirely immune to cracking a few jokes and cringing a bit over the new movies. I know why the original trilogy "worked" for my generation and why the prequel trilogy fell flat. I am an original trilogy girl, but I do not hate the prequel trilogy. In fact, I would even say that I enjoyed the movies.

There, I said it. Throw your rotten tomatoes if you want, but I don't think it's cinematic treason to enjoy an escapist summer movie filled with special effects and some less-than-stellar dialogue. I'm glad that the new trilogy (and the subsequent Clone Wars TV series) brought a fresh flood of excitement and a new generation of fans to the franchise. New blood and more dollars in the fan base cannot be a bad thing.

I remember very clearly the summer Episode I was released. It was a rough time for me. I'd just ended a three year relationship and lost custody of both a beloved pet and my apartment in the process. On top of all that mess, my ancient Pontiac (nicknamed Old Gray Mare or OGM by all my friends) decided to have a meltdown that required two weeks of expensive repairs. There I was...sleeping on my best friend's couch with a box of tissues and no car. The Phantom Menace was in theaters, but I had no way to go see the movie. My friend took pity on me. Even though she is not a fan of any of the Star Wars movies, she loaded me into her car and took me to see the new movie.

You know what? I thoroughly enjoyed that experience. I did. It was 136 minutes of pure escapist fun that wrapped my childhood fandom around me like a warm, familiar blanket.

The theater was full of kids. They jumped up and down cheering during the pod race. They laughed big joyous belly laughs over Jar-Jar's antics. They clapped when R2-D2 rolled onscreen.

I shudder to think of some snooty original trilogy fan informing those innocent, happy kids that Jar Jar is a racist stereotype and the scenes that made them jump for joy were lousy, ghastly, terrible or miserable. That's just hateful. And hate, no matter how intellectually it is elucidated, is always the Dark Side of the Force.

Summary 

When Erika helps her best friend, teen beauty queen Cassie Abbott, escape their “Nowhere, Ohio” town, she promises to keep all of their secrets safe, but then the days stretch into weeks with no word from Cassie. Worse, the sheriff’s investigation into Cassie’s disappearance is making Erika doubt she ever really knew Cassie at all. Under the weight of scrutiny and confusion, Erika struggles just to breathe . . . until a new movie called Star Wars transforms her summer with a new hope.

For Erika, Star Wars changes everything! She volunteers to do chores for a local theater owner just to gain unlimited access to a galaxy far, far away from her current reality. At the Bixby Theater—a beautiful but crumbling movie palace from a more civilized era—Erika discovers new friendships, feels the crush of first love and starts an exciting new romance with Super 8 film making. But she can’t hide in a darkened movie theater forever.

Eventually, Erika must step out of the shadows and, armed with her Super 8 camera and the lessons she’s learned from Star Wars, she’ll have to fight to save herself and the theater that has become her home.

Paperback: 316 pages

Publisher: Deeds Publishing (May 21, 2013)

ISBN-13: 978-1-937565-58-9

Twitter hashtag: #NSLASlay

Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away is available as a print and e-book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

About the author

Trisha Slay is a writer with a passion for storytelling. She has studied at the Institute of Children's Literature as well as furthering her skills through online workshops. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and the Atlanta Writer's Club. She enjoys participating in writing groups and spends a great deal of time improving her craft. Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away is her first novel.

Tricia hopes Not So Long Ago, Not So Far Away would be compared to Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. She has said that "If those two books had a Star Wars-obsessed little sister, I'd like to think she would be my novel."

Tricia lives between the Atlanta metro area and the North Georgia Mountains, but hails originally from Ohio...by the way of the San Francisco Bay area. When she is not working on her next book (tentatively titled Sometimes We Strike Back), her interests include: 70s pop culture; unsolved mysteries; Star Wars (original trilogy); historic movie theaters; haunted history; reading (especially YA novels); nutrition/weight watchers/healthy vegetarian cuisine; hiking (exploring the National Forest trails with her guy); yoga/meditation; miscellaneous crafting projects (that rarely turn out as envisioned); and writing letters she never intends to mail.

Connect with Trisha

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Visit other stops on the tour here

WOW ~ Women on Writing

Giveaway! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow The Book Bag on bloglovin' 
or by email (option on the sidebar) 

Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Summer Kindle Fire Giveaway!

This is a joint AUTHOR & BLOGGER 

GIVEAWAY EVENT!

Bloggers & Authors have joined together and each chipped in a little money towards a Kindle Fire HD 7".

Kindle Fire HD 7" Giveaway

The winner will have the option of receiving a 7" Kindle Fire HD (US Only)

Or $199 Amazon.com Gift Card (International)

Or $199 in Paypal Cash (International)

Sponsoring Bloggers & Authors

1. I Am A Reader, Not A Writer
2. Feed Your Reader
3. New Adult Addiction
4. Jessabella Reads
5. The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Somthing Year Old Girl
6. Books Unhinged by StacyHgg
7. S.A. Larsen - Writer's Ally
8. Author Inger Iverson
9. The Geeky Gamers
10. annakyss
11. Everyday Word Magic
12. Candance's Book Blog
13. Page Flipperz
14. SMI Book Club
15. Laurie Here
16. Feed Your Fiction Addiction
17. Phantasmic Reads
18. The Book Bellas
19. Please Don't Remove MarGreat's Glasses
20. Author Jennifer Laurens
21. J.C. Valentine
22. Holly Hood
23. Young Adult Novel Reader
24. Author Heather Bixler
25. Literary Meanderings
26. Suspense Author Kim Cresswell
27. Mother Daughter & Son Book Review
28. Meredith's Musings
29. Auggie Talk
30. Author Camelia Miron Skiba
31. Author Lena Sledge
32. LoriTheAuthor
33. Author Dianne Venetta
34. Curling Up with A Good Book
35. MyLadyWeb
36. Fae Books
37. Bea's Book Nook
38. Girls with Books
39. Ketch's Book Nook
40. Turning Pages
41. Bookhounds
42. Karey White
43. My Devotional Thoughts
44. Author Talia Jager
45. Author Helen Smith
46. Sher A Hart: Written Art
47. Author MK McClintock
48. Word to Dreams
49. Buku-Buku Didi
50. Tasty Book Tours
51. Readerlicious
52. Romance Bookworm's Reviews

Giveaway Details

1 winner will receive their choice of a Kindle Fire 7" HD (US Only), $199 Amazon Gift Card or $199 in Paypal Cash (International).

There is a second separate giveaway for bloggers who post this giveaway on their blog. See details in the rafflecopter on how to enter to win the 2nd Kindle Fire.

Sponsor a future Kindle Fire Giveaway by signing up HERE.

Ends 8/15/13

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, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the participating authors & bloggers. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

WWW Wednesdays July 17, 2013

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Goodreads
for more information about the books listed below.

What are you currently reading?

The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton
I just started this one but I am enjoying it so far.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

I have heard so many good things about this book. I am going to be listening to it on audio-book.

What did you recently finish reading?

HEIST by Laura Pauling
Very interesting premise. I will be posting my thoughts soon.

Suffocate and Choke 
(The Breathless Series #1 and #2) 
by S.R Johannes 
Seriously, if you have not read these yet, you really should! Amazing! My thoughts are here. 

What do you think you will read next?

True Love's First Kiss by Heidi Garrett
This is books 1-3 of the Queen of the Realm of Faerie series. It should be a good one to read on my road trip next week.

What's on your WWW this week?

Leave me a comment and

I'll stop by to check out your reads.

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The Breathless Series by S.R. Johannes: Suffocate (#1) and Choke (#2)

Suffocate is the first novelette in The Breathless series. It is a 15,000 word young adult thriller that combines the dystopic and science fiction genres.

For centuries, the world outside the Biome has been unlivable. Today, marks the first time anyone will attempt to leave the suffocating ecosphere. Eria is not worried because her scientist father has successfully tested the new Bio-Suit many times.

It's a celebratory day until something goes horribly wrong. In the midst of tragedy, Eria uncovers a deep conspiracy in her perfect bubble. If those responsible find out what she knows, they won't stop hunting her until she takes her last breath.

The 2nd novelette in the series, Choke, is scheduled for June 2013. The 3rd, Exhale, is scheduled for Winter 2013. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

Print Length: 46 pages
Publisher: Coleman and Stott (May 16, 2012)

 

When Eria escapes her home in the Biome, she uncovers more about her features and specifications as a HumaNot. Following her father's instructions, Eria embarks on a journey into a dangerous and unpredictable world.

Along the way, she encounters a young rebel, Dirk, who explains he's from the Anarchy, an underground human resistance rising up against the BOTs--advanced man-made robots gone wild. Together, Dirk and Eria battle underground serpents, desert dingos, sand storms, and advanced Bots that are always hot on their trail. As they become closer, Dirk reveals his hatred of machines, forcing Eria to hide the secret of what and who she really is.

When the truth of her identity comes out, Eria is forced to become the very thing she hates the most.

This novelette is about 20,000 words and is the 2nd in the YA Breathless novelette series. Exhale (#3) is scheduled for Nov 2013. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

Print Length: 74 pages
Publisher: Coleman and Stott (June 19, 2013)

My thoughts about Suffocate and Choke ~~ 

OMG! I love this series! Suffocate totally drew me in and I couldn't do anything else but read until I was done with this amazing story. It is so intense I could not put it down. I also had Choke downloaded on my Kindle so when I got done with Suffocate, I looked at the time and decided,what the heck, I still had time to get it read too. So what if I had to get up to go to work in the morning? I had to find out what happened to Eria.

I don't know what else to say other that these stories are so intense. And I just had to keep reading. And I love them! I will be so excited in November when book #3 comes out.

About the author

When Shelli was younger, she spent all her time outdoors, hiking, camping and living the Girl Scout Way.

Somewhere along the way, she got away from nature and earned an MBA in Marketing, kicking off an 18-year marketing career in Corporate America.

Eventually, Shelli traded in her expensive suits, high heels, and corporate lingo for a family, flip-flops, and her love of writing. She started her own marketing & communications business, www.bilaninc.com, where she worked with Spanx, Goody Hair Products, Chick Filet, and the Boys & Girls Club of America.

In addition to juggling nap schedules and client meetings, Shelli focuses on her writing. She is a frequent speaker on marketing and book publicity at SCBWI conferences across the U.S, and runs a popular book marketing blog, Market My Words (www.faeriality.blogspot.com).

In her spare time (yeah right!) and if the kids allow (yeah right!), Shelli obsesses over movies, reads children’s books (over and over), and still dreams of sleeping in on the weekends. But most importantly, she is finally getting back to her roots by running her own Girl Scout Troop in Atlanta, helping girls get back to nature.

She currently lives in Atlanta with her dog (Charley), British-accented husband, and the huge imaginations of their little prince and princess that someday will change the world.

Connect with Shelli

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