What’s your favorite quote?
New Galleys Coming Soon!
I was approved for a few new galleys this morning. This is what you have to look forward to this month!
Accession by Terah Edun
Contaminated 2: Mercy Mode by Em Garner
Tabula Rasa by Kristen Lippert-Martin
BZRK: Apocalypse by Michael Grant
Big thanks to All Nights Reads, Egmont USA and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review these titles!
Tuesday Quote
I loooove book quotes. I mean love them. I’ve decided to start sharing a few on my blog. I haven’t decided if it will be a weekly thing yet, or of it will just be a when I feel like it sorta thing. I have some sort of quote saved from almost every book I read. I have been sharing them on instagram for a while now. Sometimes they are about the bool itself and sometimes it’s a quote of a quote. If it pertains to a certain book I’ll be sure to list the title and author. Anyways, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Here’s number 1!
Fire & Flood (Fire & Flood 1) by Victoria Scott
From Goodreads
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can’t determine what’s wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She’s lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she’s helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It’s an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother’s illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there’s no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can’t trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?
Victoria Scott’s breathtaking novel grabs readers by the throat and doesn’t let go.
So… Pokemon meets the Hunger Games.. ok I’ll bite. This book has a lot of bad reviews. A LOT. I found this out after I purchased it. Reminder to read reviews before buying books! I have to say though, it’s not as awful as everyone is making it out to be. I actually kinda half way enjoyed it, and I will purchase book 2. What can I say, I’m intrigued. I will go as far as saying, this is not an original idea. The author probably thought she had an original idea, but come on. The similarities to The Hunger Games are way to close for comfort. (Yes I do know that The Hunger Games is not the first book of it’s kind, but for this review it pertains exactly to it.)
This is a quick (I read it in like 3 hours), somewhat bland YA novel. Let us not forget that it is written perfectly for it’s target audience. Older teens/adults, yeah, not so much. It has action (think of the different zones in Catching Fire, oh wait..), it has a weird romance/friendship thing (think The Hunger Games, shit), and it has… wait for it… wait for it… ONLY ONE CAN MAKE IT OUT ALIVE AND WIN!
Ok, so I gave it a little hell, but it’s almost impossible not to. Give it a shot.
Be prepared, it is only a matter of time before this book makes it to screen.
The Reckoning by Rennie Airth
I really wanted to super love this book because it is the first I have been given from First to Read. This just wasn’t the case this time. It may be because I haven’t read the other books in the series, although I felt this book was fine on it’s own. There is enough backtracking to other “cases” that make me feel as though I’ve already read those as well. This was a mystery/thriller type book and I felt like I’ve read this same plot 100 times before. I loved the way the author described London, making you feel as though you could actually see it.. but the set up for the whole story made it so predictable. I knew the outcome before I was half way through and it left me lacking. I didn’t even want to finish the book. This probably won’t be one I recommend to just anyone. More suited for fans of James Patterson and Agatha Christie. I wish I could write more, but I just didn’ t feel this one. I received a copy of this book from First to Read in exchange for my review.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
I refused to jump onto the John Green bandwagon. REFUSED. My book club, however, had other thoughts… and I am soooo glad they did. I’m an addict. I am in love with fictional characters. I can’t stop. I went out and bought everything John Green I could get my hands on the day after I finished Looking for Alaska.
From Goodreads:
Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.
After. Nothing is ever the same.
I don’t even know where to start on explaining how fucking wonderful this book was. The characters were great. The plot was great. OMG the feels were great. Each character reminded me of someone I know of have known. I cried. I cried like a baby. If you can read this book and NOT feel something, well, then you are an emotional robot, my friend.
Above just being awesome all the way around, this book made me question death. What does it mean? Why does it happen? I pondered answers that aren’t really answers. It made me realize we never really know anyone as well as we think we do. We all have lives we hide even from those we choose to surround ourselves with.
Please, go buy this book. You won’t regret it.
Horns by Joe Hill review
Please take note, this is not one of my raving and gushing reviews.
I wanted to love this book so much. I hyped it up in my head and dove straight in. Partly because I’m a huge, and I mean HUGE, Stephen King fan. Joe had a lot of hype to live up to, and unfortunately, he failed.
I hated this book. It was hard to get through. The first 1/3 of the book I was hooked and I was loving it and then it all fell apart. The story isn’t well thought out, lacks good description, lacks decent characters and basically everything else you look for in a good book. It’s rushed and it’s horrible. I’m hoping Joe can redeem himself in the other two books I’ve already purchased.
Who wouldn’t want to read a book about a man who randomly wakes up with horns growing out of his head? Sounds super interesting, right? Nope! He tries, I’ll give him that. The plot would have been good if he had taken the time to explain things further. Everyone I’ve talked to that loved it tells me that I just don’t understand the book.. and well, I understand it perfectly. I just didn’t like it. It’s a story of revenge, plain and simple. We never really find out why the main character gets horns! Every single time the story seems to get somewhat interesting it’s like a bad joke. Hey the horns let me hear thoughts.. but you’ll never find out why. Hey the horns help me make people do things… but you never find out why… Hey I have horns, but guess what, you never find out why I was chosen to get them! The same descriptions for the scenes and characters are used for every single scene and character. I don’t think there was one really original thought anywhere in this book. It gets so cliche that I wanted to punch the book. If I had read the word devil one more time I think I may have burned the damn thing.
I can’t for the life of me say go out and buy this book. Save your money. Go see the movie. I think this will be one time in which I say the movie was better than the book.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater review
Maggie Stiefvater has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I started with this book, and then went out and bought everything else asap. She is so skilled in bringing you into the story with her words that it’s almost mesmerizing. I absolutely love her. The first book I am going to review by her is The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1), but I plan to post a review for all of them soon. Hope you like her as much as I do!
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
The Raven Boys actually follows a girl mostly, but equally introduces all the boys in the book. It was nice to finally see a book considered to be YA follow the boys for once. All of the characters are extremely well developed.
Blue gets caught up into a great mystery that she never even wanted to be a part of. She hates the boys from Aglionby Academy. They’re everything she’s not.. wealthy and full of life. What Blue doesn’t expect to find in those boys is friendship like she has never experienced before. Blue lives at home with her mother and 3 psychic aunts. I can imagine how hard that would be on a teenage girl. Blue mostly sticks to herself because she has been told for as long as she can remember that she is destined to kill her true love. How does that make you not want to read this book?
This book has several plot lines going on at once, that are all connected. It gets a little over whelming at times, but stick it out. Trust me, it’s worth it. This is not a book that you will easily forget. It’s been a few months since I read it and it is still sticking with me.
[Spoiler Alert]
The ending had me thinking OMG, OMG I MUST READ BOOK 2! I mean, come on… a boy that and “pluck” things from his dreams?!? How sweet is that.
Author Interview – Jack Wallen
I’d like to take a minute to introduce everyone to Jack Wallen. We met through one of those random instances on facebook and he has become one of my favorite people to see post since. I guarantee it will either be thought provoking or completely out there.
Jack is referred to as the Zombie King. He’s an actor, author, radio host, dad, husband.. this man does it all. I hope you run to amazon as quickly as possible to purchase some of his work after reading this interview.
First off, tell us a little about yourself. When you’re not penning something awesome, what else do you like to do in your normal every day life?
The one thing I like to do more than anything is hang out with my wife. She’s awesome and we have a great time together. I’m also a mountain biker, so you’ll often see me thrashing around on the local Kentucky trails (we have a lot here). My other passions are music and movies. During the day I always have music playing while I write and at night, the wife and I sit down and shut our brains off with some TV or film. Right now we’re watching the French series The Returned. French cinema is so great – they know how to really set a mood and draw out life’s colors and moments.
You started out as an actor. How hard was it to transition to writing?
It was actually quite easy. To be honest, I started writing while I was an actor because I knew there was no such thing as a reliable retirement as an actor. To that end, I wanted to build something that could serve as a retirement. The first book I wrote, A Blade Away, was done between seasons as a resident actor with Stage One. I found the process to be nearly as satisfying as acting. I also find a lot of my actor training comes in handy. Improvisation helps tremendously with dialog and the ability to really get connected to the internal workings of characters makes the job of crafting believable worlds and people so much easier.
Where do you find influence for your writing?
Anywhere. Everywhere. The shape of a tree, the sound of nature…the moments between life. The inspiration for one of my upcoming pieces came from the song “Blood” by In This Moment. If you listen to the song at 0:39-0:41 you hear this remarkably raw passion pouring out of Maria Banks. Those two seconds of power caused me to wonder what would bring someone to need to unleash such anger onto another human. That lead me to develop the story for an upcoming Fringe Killer novel, ‘Control’.
The book I am just now finishing, Among You, was a dream I had in high school. I carried that dream with me through life and eventually turned it into a stage play. Not satisfied with putting that piece of my life away, I realized it had to be book. A very crucial moment in that story was inspired by the Broods song ‘Never Gonna Change’.
You have several novels under your belt. Of all of them, which one is your personal favorite?
That is so hard to answer. I get asked it a lot and the answer changes, moment to moment. I’m very proud of A Blade Away because it was my first. I Zombie I proved I had it in me to write in my favorite genre. Shero is just too important to ignore (even though it can be silly, it holds the single most important message I offer – accepting yourself and your truth. Hell’s Muse is probably the most complex novel I’ve ever written. It came out of a very dark place within me. I love it because I finally got to write a piece about hell and the trappings of fame. Endgame nearly did me in as a writer. It was a tough piece – on a number of levels. Getting that book complete and out into the public was a testament to my strength and tolerance to others in the industry.
But maybe, just maybe, they all take a back seat to Klockwerk Kabaret. I always wanted to write steampunk and that book was such a joy.
Honestly, they are all my favorite – on some level.
I know, not the answer you wanted. But each book has a part of me bled into the warp and weft of the story and words.
Shero has gained a bit of a cult following. How does it feel to accomplish something like that?
I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of Shero. I wrote that piece at a time in my life when I really needed joy. I found it between words and pages of that story. Shero is probably one of my most important series – if for any other reason than the message it contains is crucial for the human race. It’s very GLBT-centric (as is the Fringe Killer series) and serves as a celebration of equality and acceptance.
That people have grown to love Shero means, at least to me, that there is hope for the human race.
You have a few books releasing soon. Please tell us a little about them.
I have two books from the I Zombie series that will be released soon. The first is Cry Zombie Cry. This is the seventh in the series and is a special piece because it expands on something I stared with Lie Zombie Lie by bringing real-world people into the story. Lie Zombie Lie saw the introduction of Morgan Garcia (formerly Barnhart) and Joshua Garcia of the Zombie Response Team. The serve as major characters in the story now (along with their organization). In Cry Zombie Cry I introduce the Polish metal band Unsun into the mix. I have worked with Aya (the singer) to craft lyrics for their up-coming release – one song is titled Cry Zombie Cry (lyrics by me) and serves as a soundtrack to the novel. The band is still writing and recording. My plan is to do a simultaneous release of the book and the album.
Before that book is released, a new novella spin off series will be available. The Last Casket series stars the real-life psychobilly band Kitty in a Casket. I’ve worked with Kitty Casket (the singer) to bring the band to life in the I Zombie series. This spin off will be a bit lighter than my usual fare. The undead will be rocked!
I mentioned Among You earlier. This is my first YA title. I’m calling it a YA Parahorror Romance because it’s darker than the standard fare and although romance does have a place at the table, it is not the centerpiece.
Tell us about Zombie Radio.
Zombie Radio was originally written in the book My Zombie My. One of my beta readers suggested I bring that broadcast to life to help market the book. That was three years ago. I’ve recorded a Zombie Radio podcast every saturday since. It’s really a pleasure for me to do. The character of the DJ has evolved a great deal since the first broadcast and has become some strange take on William Shatner. The DJ plays music, comments on the apocalypse, and has guests and other fun schtick. You can find Zombie Radio on iTunes or just go to http:///www.zombieradio.org to have a listen.
It seems like you have a full work load on your hands. How to you find time to manage it all and spend time with your family?
Writing is my job…and my life. My wife understands that, but she knows that when it’s time to pull my fingers from the keys…I’m all hers. Of course, she also knows that my mind is always wrapped around a work in progress or developing something new. It does help to be able to write throughout the day. But the majority of my writing comes at night, when everyone else is asleep and the lights are out. Since I write horror, the darkness has always been my comfort space.
If you were to share one piece of advice with new authors, what would it be?
Never give up, never give in. Find your voice and make it unique. There is only one you. Make the most out of what you have to offer and hold it close to your heart. Once you’ve made that level of connection with your voice, the writing will come easy. When you attempt to be something or someone else…the writing becomes a chore.
You have enough chores already.
Where can we expect to see Jack Wallen a year from now?
Waiting for the opening of the film adaptation for Among You. Until then, you can find me here:
Twitter: @jlwallen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.jackwallen
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+jackwallen/posts
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Wallen/e/B004MZWR3W/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
I’d like to thank Jack for taking time out of his schedule to answer a few questions for me. Buy his books, follow him in any way you can, and listen to Zombie Radio. I promise you won’t be disappointed! I see Jack doing some really awesome things in the future, and it’s always cool to say you heard about it first!
To thank you all for stopping by to meet Jack and give my blog a little traffic, I’d like to offer up a giveaway. I am currently using the free version of wordpress, so you’ll have to click the link below to be taken to the entry form.
$5 in amazon money to purchase one of Jacks books! Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Please see my giveaway policy page for all other rules and regulations.
Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy book 1) by Mira Grant
It’s 2040. Cancer and the common cold have been cured. Sounds great, until you throw in the zombies..
Feed is the first book in the Newsflesh Trilogy. I wanted to read this book for soooo long. I actually began reading it last year and stopped on chapter 5. There was no way I could finish without having the rest of the series waiting for me. I finally got my hands on them, finished Feed in a little under three days and I’m currently about 3\4 finished with the second book in the series.
I FREAKING LOVED IT!
Feed is unlike any other “zombie” novel I’ve ever read. It takes place 26 years after the rising. The world has learned to live with the zombies, but the fear is always there.
In this new world people rely more on bloggers for their news than in any other form. Bloggers were the first people sharing info on the outbreak and how to prepare.
The novel follows Georgia and Shaun, who were orphaned in the rising and later adopted. They are bloggers and do whatever it takes to get the story. They get chosen to follow and report on a presidential campaign. Everything thay can go wrong, does. And then some. Georgia and Shaun stop at nothing to get their story. From zombie attacks to sabotage, they’re in the thick of it all.
I was so shocked at the ending. Never saw it coming. Doesn’t that make you want to read it? The characters are all believable and well developed. There are a few plot twists and “feels” moments to keep you going. Seriously, this is one of those books you won’t be able to put down!
Brittney Reads 