Sunday, 16 November 2014

FLURY Blog Tour & Giveaway


The Book

Flury: Journey Of The Snowman by Tony Bertauski
Book 3 in the Claus series
Genre: Young Adult


About Flury: Journey Of The Snowman:
Life hasn’t been kind to Oliver Toye.

As if juvenile diabetes isn’t enough, he’s forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and the nights listening to the forest rumble.

But when he discovers the first leather-bound journal, the family secrets begin to surface. The mystery of his great-grandfather’s voyage to the North Pole is revealed. That’s when the snowman appears.

Flury.

Magical and mysterious, the snowman will save Oliver more than once. But when the time comes for Oliver to discover the truth, will he have the courage? When he Flury needs him, will he have the strength? When believing isn’t enough, will he save the snowman from melting away?

Because sometimes even magic needs a little help.
Source: Info in the About Flury: Journey Of The Snowman was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):


Other Books In The Series

Jack: The Tale Of Frost by Tony Bertauski
Book 2 in the Claus series
Genre: Young Adult


About Jack: The Tale Of Frost:
Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He’s very short and very fat and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn’t Jack, she’s told. And that’s all she needed to know.

Mr. Frost’s love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He’s made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he’s an elven, but that’s silly. Elven aren’t real. And if they were, they wouldn’t live in South Carolina. They wouldn’t hide in a tower and go to the basement to make…things.

Nonetheless, Sura will work for this odd little recluse. Frost Plantation is where she’ll meet the love of her life. It’s where she’ll finally feel like she belongs somewhere. And it’s where she’ll meet someone fatter, balder and stranger than Mr. Frost. It’s where she’ll meet Jack.

Jack hates Christmas.
Source: Info in the About Jack: The Tale Of Frost was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):
Buy from fishpond iTunes audiobook Audible Books Google Play IndieBound

Claus: Legend Of The Fat Man by Tony Bertauski
Book 1 in the Claus series
Genre: Young Adult


About Claus: Legend Of The Fat Man:
Santa is not just about the presents. See something deeper in this mythological figure. A story that’s meaningful. Find a cast of gritty, compassionate and courageous characters that make the journey to mythological fame despite their shortcomings and frailties. Pull away the veil of magic, reveal the difficulties of love and loss and struggle with life.

Because Santa Claus is much more than presents.

In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient.

Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions — time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.

Until now.

An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven known as… Claus.
Source: Info in the About Claus: Legend Of The Fat Man was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):
iTunes audiobook Audible Books Google Play IndieBound

Meet The Author

About Tony Bertauski:
During the day, I’m a horticulturist. While I’ve spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I’ve always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I’ve always fancied fiction.

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I’m a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That’s the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.

Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it’s only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer’s Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult’s struggle with his place in the world.

After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.

And I’m a big fan of plot twists.


Giveaway
One winner wins e-copies of all 3 books in the Claus series so far: Claus, Jack and Flury. Each individual blogger also can hold a giveaway for an e-copy of the winner’s choice from Tony Bertauski’s books.

For a chance to win enter the rafflecopter below.


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THE COLOR OF THE SEASON Promotional Event & Giveaway


The Book

The Color Of The Season by Julianne MacLean
Book 7 of The Color Of Heaven series
Genre: contemporary romance


About The Color Of The Season:
From USA Today bestselling author Julianne MacLean comes the next installment in her popular Color of Heaven series - a gripping, emotional tale about real life magic that touches us all during the holiday season…

Boston cop, Josh Wallace, is having the worst day of his life. First, he’s dumped by the woman he was about to propose to, then everything goes downhill from there when he is shot in the line of duty. While recovering in the hospital, he can’t seem to forget the woman he wanted to marry, nor can he make sense of the vivid images that flashed before his eyes when he was wounded on the job. Soon, everything he once believed about his life begins to shift when he meets Leah James, an enigmatic resident doctor who somehow holds the key to both his past and his future…
Source: Info in the About The Color Of The Season was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):
iBook Buy Buy from Google Play

Trailer


Excerpt
Nearly two weeks after our confrontation with Holly’s parents, I had the dream again.

I was driving through the rain, alone in my patrol car, wipers beating back and forth, lights flashing. As I rounded a sharp curve, a woman pushed a baby carriage out in front of me.

I slammed a foot on the brake pedal. My tires skidded over the shiny pavement. Whack! I hit the carriage. It flew into the air.

The baby, swaddled in a white blanket, bounced like a football over the hood of my car and smashed the windshield. I watched everything as if it were happening in slow motion, then squinted to try and refocus my eyes on the road.

I was still traveling at full speed.

Leah!

She stood on the center line, feet braced apart, both hands splayed out in front of her.

“Stop!” She mouthed the words: “Go back!” Then she vanished before connecting with my grill.

I pulled the car to screeching a halt, looked over my shoulder to see the mother on her knees at the side of the road, reaching for her baby.

I shifted into reverse to help them.

“No!”

I sat bolt upright in bed.

It took me a moment to understand where I was. Holly was rubbing my back, stroking her fingers through my sweat-drenched hair, speaking urgently.

“It was just a dream, Josh. You’re fine. Everything’s okay.”

My heart pummelled my ribcage as I lay back down. She kissed my forehead, then wrapped her arm around me and snuggled close.

I shut my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. I had to get up.




Other Books In The Color Of Heaven Series:


Meet The Author

About Julianne MacLean:
Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author who has sold more than 1.3 million books in North America, and her novels have also been translated into many foreign languages, including Spanish, German, Portugese, French, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, and Dutch. She has written twenty historical romance novels, including the bestselling Highlander Trilogy with St. Martin's Press and her popular Pembroke Palace Series with Avon/Harper Collins. She also writes contemporary mainstream fiction, and THE COLOR OF HEAVEN was a USA Today bestseller. She is a three-time RITA finalist and has won numerous awards, including the Booksellers' Best Award, the Book Buyers Best Award, and a Reviewers' Choice Award from Romantic Times for Best Regency Historical of 2005. She has a degree in English Literature from the University of King’s College in Halifax, and a degree in Business Administration from Acadia University. She lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and daughter, and is a dedicated member of Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada.


Giveaway
25 winners will receive a print copy of The Color of the Season. Open Intl.


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Autumn: w | t | f | F | g+ | p | gr
Andrea: w | t | F | g+ | gr

Thursday, 13 November 2014

SKI SLOPE SPARKS


The Book

Ski Slope Sparks by Monique DuBois
Genre: contemporary christmas romance / new adult / novella


About Ski Slope Sparks:
ONE-NIGHT ENCOUNTER...OR FOREVER LOVE?

Jamie Fielding has been counting the days until her Christmas ski vacation. Unfortunately, when her cheating boyfriend cancels at the last minute, it looks as though she'll be spending Christmas Eve alone. Instead, a bad case of altitude sickness lands her in the resort infirmary where she finds herself in the company of a sexy, charismatic doctor. After a passion-filled night in a cozy ski cabin, Jamie awakens in the arms of the best Christmas present ever...Dr. Wyatt Tremaine. Their newfound bond is threatened, however, when lovers from their pasts show up. Luckily, the magic of the season prevails, and soon Jamie and Wyatt are in each other's arms again, experiencing the kind of sparks that are destined to light an enduring fire...and give them a Christmas to remember.
Source: Info in the About Ski Slope Sparks was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):


Meet The Author

About Monique DuBois:
For as long as I can remember, I've had a boring, predictable life. I work at a low-paying job and have ho-hum missionary sex with my long-term boyfriend, who calls me "pear shaped" (and not in a good way). I've never been with more than one man or explored myself sexually. That's for sexy, skinny girls. Girls with exciting lives. Girls I'm not.

When a series of events send my life into a tailspin, I find myself at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, locking eyes with a gorgeous, sexy stranger who sends my heart racing. Our first night together is one I'll never forget. Or the next. Shockingly, he wants to pay me lots of money just to have me as his personal sex goddess. Best of all, he's not the only one.

Soon, I'm discovering my sexuality for the first time, caught up in the exciting, glamorous world of high-class escorting. I'm also discovering myself: the independent, sexy, confident woman I was meant to be. Trouble is, I can't give my body without giving my heart. I'm falling in love with more than one man, and they with me. I can't choose just one . . . Or can I?


Wednesday, 12 November 2014

RETURN TO CHELSEY FALLS Book Blast & Giveaway


The Book

Return To Chelsey Falls by Marianne Gowers
Book 1 of the Remember Me series
Genre: Inspirational Fiction/Romance


About Return To Chelsey Falls:
After the death of his mother, fourteen year old, Wyatt Barnes was sent to live with his grandparents in Chelsey Falls, Washington. That summer was filled with new friends and new adventures until his life was turned upside down for a second time.

Almost ten years later, an offer to teach at the high school in Chelsey Falls, brings Wyatt back to the small town. Is he getting a second chance to make amends with Alexa, the young woman that had befriended him?

Meanwhile, Wyatt’s sudden reappearance in town sends Alexa’s life into a tailspin. Alexa can’t help but wonder if Wyatt has finally found the peace he so desperately needed. Although apprehensive about opening old wounds, Alexa knows she can’t avoid Wyatt forever. Could what started out as a crush so long ago become more than that now? Or is it just too late?

Return to Chelsey Falls is a heartwarming story of second chances and forgiveness.
Source: Info in the About Return To Chelsey Falls was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):


Excerpt:
“Need any help, Lexa?”

“It’s A-lexa,” she said, dragging out the A at the beginning of her name. She threw her backpack over her shoulder, gathered her lunch and started for the junior high.

“Yeah, but I think I’ll call you Lexa.” I hurried to her side and flashed her a smile.

She shook her head, another tiny smile flickering across her face. She was cute when she was irritated.

I followed her to her locker, leaning against the one next to hers. I hadn’t made any friends yet and Lexa intrigued me. She slammed her locker shut.

“Did you need something?”

There was that irritated look again.

Lexa and I had History together after lunch. “I wanted to make sure you made it to class okay.” I thought I saw another smile as she started down the hall without answering.

“This is so nice,” I shouted into the busy hall. “Just you and me walking to class together.” She snorted, quickly covering her mouth, but not before I saw a speck of spit fly through the air.

“Real funny, Wyatt.” She laughed and her face turned bright red. I wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed by the flying spit or by the fact that she actually knew my name.

“You know my name? Have we met?”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but every day Mr. Kline has to say, ‘Wyatt, wake up!’”

I liked her even more. She had spunk. I laughed as we arrived at the classroom, but my laughter was cut short. I’d forgotten something. I had my soccer ball in my hands and no backpack.

“Hey, can I borrow a pencil?” I hoped she didn’t think I was a big dork, standing there with just my soccer ball.


Praise for the Book:
Alisa says: Good read! I enjoyed the story and the characters. The author’s description and character development allowed the reader to get into the story easily and quickly. A fabulous clean, good story about following your heart and not giving up.

Lauren says: The best part of the story for me were the characters and their development. I kept thinking it was going to be predictable but it had enough surprises and twists to feel refreshing and creative.

SStew says: Great read! I loved getting the story from two different perspectives and how it went back and forth from present to past. If you like this genre it is a great book from a first time author. I’ll look forward to her future releases.


Meet The Author

About Marianne Gowers:
Marianne Gowers was born in Seattle, Washington where she grew up with nine brothers and sisters. She has dreamed of writing for many years, and has finally made it a reality. She spends her days writing and editing and then editing some more. She loves bringing to life the many characters in her imagination. She enjoys writing LDS Women's fiction, providing funny and inspiring stories, which she hopes will be appealing even to those outside her faith.


Giveaway
Book Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 11/30/14

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.