Cover Reveal: Fairy Tale Confessions Collection

BOOK INFO:
Fairy Tale Confessions Collection
Published by: Amber Leaf Publishing
Publication date: October 1st 2015
Genres: Fairy Tales

Synopsis:
Fourteen bestselling authors twist up your favorite tales. Will your favorite have a happily-every-after?

Get ready to meet some sexy, not-so-valiant princes, punk-rock princesses, villains turned heroes, and truly vile monsters, causing  havoc within our favorite happily-ever-afters.

Read about Dancing Princesses getting their groove on in a disco club, a seriously sexy Rumpelstiltskin, and one alluring Puss-in-Boots, plus many, many more captivating characters in these fourteen all new short-stories.

In association with RT 2016 come meet the twisted fairy tale girls: M. Clarke, Amy Daws, L.P. Dover, Elizabeth Montgomery, Shannon Morton, Brynn Myers, Wendy Owens, Sarah J. Pepper, Cameo Renae, Kellie Sheridan, Jessica Sorensen, Kristen Strassel, Tish Thawer, and K.R. Wilburn. If you’ll be in Vegas for RT 2016, join hosts, Sarah J. Pepper and Tish Thawer at the Fairy Tale Costume Party where you could see a traditional Snow-White, or a completely gothed-out Belle roaming the scene, win dinner with Prince Charming, and snag gift baskets from all the participating authors.


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25875555-fairy-tale-confessions

Icons (Icons #1) by Margaret Stohl

I was lucky enough to win a copy of this from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and once again it was through a Shelf Awareness Giveaway!  The premise at first didn't "grab" me, but I knew that as I had loved Beautiful Creatures by both Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, I would probably love this too, and I was right.
It started out a bit slow, I wasn't quite sure what was going on, and it did take a bit to get into it, but once I did, I was hooked.  I am a huge science fiction fan, so the idea of an alien story seemed a bit more original to me in the current crop of YA novels.
The main character is Dol, short for Doloria.  She doesn't have any family, because of The Day.  The day when Earth was officially taken over by these aliens.  They had machines that I'm guessing were some kind of electromagnetic pulse type, the made all the power stop, but mainly they killed people. For some reason, Dol was one of the lucky ones.  Even though her family died around her, she lived.  She doesn't know why she survived.  She has been living in the Grass, with some interesting people, including the Padre, a priest, who has been really taking care of her.  And she has a best friend, Ro.  Ro seems to have something different about him as well.  While Dol has a dot on her wrist, Ro has dots on his wrist as well.  While Dol can feel what others are feeling, almost reading minds, Ro has a different strength/power, one more like rage.  And together they can take away the hurt when it gets to much.  But Ro gets Dol a birthday present.  One that used electricity.  Only this may be a bad thing, as it draws the Sympa soldiers, the government that is in cahoots with the Lords, as the aliens are called.  Ro and Dol are captured, the Padre is killed by the soldiers.  On the train back to the city, there is another prisoner in the car that Dol is in, his name is Fortis.  Fortis is a merk, or so he says, he can get things, blow things up specifically.  And he offers to help Dol get away.  So there is an explosion, and she and Ro are able to escape, until some soldiers find them.  One of the soldiers is a boy their age named Lucas.  And Lucas is like them, he has dots on his wrist.  But, besides that?  He is the Ambassador's son.  So while Dol thinks she can trust him, Ro doesn't see how.
They are captured and taken on to the city.  Once there we get a new character in the story, Doc.  Doc's not your normal character, he's a machine.  And like Hal from 2001:   A Space Odyssey, it is unsure whose side he is on.  Fortis is able to get in through the computer somehow and connect to all of them, Dol, Ro, Lucas, and another person with the dots, Tima.  Lucas's power is kind of like a love spell, everyone can't help but like him, and often they will be persuaded by anything he says to them when he wields his power.  So of course, Dol does feel attracted to him.  But so does Tima, and she feels she has kind of a hold, or first dibs on him.  Together they learn that they have a resistance to the Icon, the big thing that the aliens, or "Lords" have put in each of the cities, the thing that causes the deaths of people.  Even the four of them don't completely make it unharmed, it does hurt their heads, to the point that they bleed out the ears when too close.  They must figure out if together they have something that can help Earth fight against these aliens, these faceless aliens that no one, as far as they know, has ever seen.
Very good start!  Can't wait to read on, as I said it just got better and better.  Sorry to my followers as I was going to pass the ARC on, but now that I'm going to see the author at the Romantic Times Convention next week, I'll be getting it autographed for myself.
If you're interested in seeing more, you can go see the book trailer at the official website:  The Icon Series.

Waiting on Wednesday: Breath (Riders of the Apocalypse #4) by Jackie Morse Kessler

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. My choice this week relates to the last couple of books I read and reviewed.  I'm so excited that I chose to read those 2 right before the 4th and final book of the series is going to be published.  Just 2 more weeks till I can read it!  As I mentioned in one of the reviews, the author, Jackie Morse Kessler, is going to be in my town, Kansas City, at the beginning of May as part of the Romantic Times Convention.  And I've already signed up to go on Friday and to all the Teen Day stuff on Saturday.  So I hope to get her to sign 2 of my books.  They say you are only allowed to bring 2 things.  But now I'll have 4 since the whole series is out.  :-(  Oh well.  Anyways, here is the synopsis of the final book in the series from Goodreads.com: 

Contrary to popular belief, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren’t just harbingers of doom—they actually keep life in balance. But what happens when their leader and creator, Death, becomes suicidal?

Before the first living thing drew its first gasping breath, he was there. He has watched humanity for millennia. And he has finally decided that humanity is not worth the price he has paid time and again. When Death himself gives up on life, a teenager named Xander Atwood is the world’s only hope. But Xander bears a secret, one that may bring about the end of everything.

This heart-pounding final installment of the Riders of the Apocalypse series looks at the value of life, the strength of love, and how a small voice can change everything . . . forever.

So what do you think?  Sounds pretty interesting doesn't it?  I think so, and can't wait to read it!  What books are you excited about reading this week?

Rage (Riders of the Apocalypse #2) by Jackie Morse Kessler

These are kind of short books, just about 200 pages, and so I decided to fit them in before some books that I had deadlines for.  Plus, I'm planning to go to the Romantic Times Convention the first weekend in May since it will be here in my hometown this year.  And the author will be here, so that is really exciting!  I've been a fan of this author since I read the first book in this series, Hunger.  I think that book was really easy for me to connect to, as I'm sure for many other females because it is about a girl with an eating disorder.  Food/exercising/weight, are all things I've dealt with in my life.  And so it was kind of a familiar struggle to read about.
This second book, Rage, might not be quite so easy to relate to for people.  The main character is Missy.  And she is a cutter.  She cuts because it helps numb or dull the pain.  She felt as the blood ran out of her that it also let out all the hurt and anger she had inside.  But then her boyfriend, Adam, had seen her marks, and he'd called her a freak, and broken up with her.  Which only made her cut more.  But he didn't just break up with her, he told his friends about it, and now at school she had to deal with the boys that called her names and teased her.  But she had what she called her dead face, that she dealt with those people at school.  To ignore them and not let them see her pain.  The story begins on the day she kills her cat.  She doesn't really kill her cat, that freaked me a bit at first.  I was afraid she was violent to animals since the title of the book was rage.  But she had put her cat to sleep, and she felt guilty for it.  That is something I understand because I've had to put two dogs to sleep.  I felt so guilty for the first one, and the second one.  It's such a hard choice to make.  Because could the vet have helped them if you'd spent more time and money?  Or would they have continued suffering?  So the guilt from that also led to Missy cutting more to release the pain.  Well, the day she lost her cat, Death showed up at her door.  It seems as if she had been really close to killing herself with her cutting that day from the description.  He showed up and gave her a big white box.  She didn't want it, was scared, so slammed the door in Death's face and shoved the big box, onto her closet shelf, which for some reason it was now small enough to fit on.
Death is patient, he knows that soon she will decide to take up the sword and become one of the four Riders, she will become War.  And she does, after she decides to go to a party.  She decides to go after her ex tells her he misses her, both in person at school, as well as through texting.  She also has a bad relationship with her younger sister, who is popular, and is not happy having an emo older sister at school.  All these things spur Missy to go to the party.  Where Adam finds her, and kisses her, and brings back all her old feelings for him.  But he's not really back for her, he's back to humiliate her, which he does.  And now she is ready.  She takes the sword and goes back to the party.  Only they can't see her as a rider, but she does what War does, as she walks by she spreads feelings of anger, rage, and war.  Only afterwards Missy is not pleased about it.  She feels horrible for what she's caused.  And it is this war between herself and what she believes to be "War" that she must fight and decide how will she take up the reins.  Famine, from the first book shows up several times.  Both to prod her into taking the job, as well as to kind of help her become a Rider that will help balance the four.  But Famine is cautious, as the one before her was killed by War, and she was almost killed herself before she had to kill the War before Missy.
And there is a bit of a romantic feeling between Death and Missy, as it would make sense that Death and War would go together.
We also get to meet Pestilence in this book, and he is sick, as you might figure he would be.  But the meeting with him I believe is a good bridge to the next book in the series, as the death of War in the first book brought us to this book.
Such a great series.  The issues tackled that lead to the Riders of the Apocalypse are so real and so pertinent to many teens these days.  As a teacher, I have known kids who cut.  I have heard girls that were as skinny as can be talk about needing to diet and lose weight.  All of these things make me sad.  The food things have always been understandable to me.  And with some depression issues I've had, I've recently begun to understand about the cutting as well.  Not something I'd ever do, I hate pain, pass out when I get shots or give blood, but I can understand the need to not feel pain, and how that could be a way to take your mind off emotional pain.  And I love how at the end of the book the author states that a portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to To Write Love On Her Arms, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people struggling with this issue of self-injury, as well as other similar issues.  If you want more info about  this organization, you can go to their website:  TWLOHA.

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa

Okay, once again I have been totally wowed and am asking myself why in the world I waited so long to read a book by this author.  Now, I must admit the other series by this author, is about Fey, and I'm not really into the fairies that much.  Not that I haven't read any good books about them or with them, I just haven't quite gotten to the stage where I'll go pick them up.  As I've mentioned before, I got this book at BEA last summer and actually got to meet Julie Kagawa, but didn't get her autograph.  Hmm.  Not sure why.  Maybe I'll get another chance.  In fact, wonder if she'll be at the Romantic Times Convention in Kansas City in May since her books are by Harlequin Teen.  Cool, I'd better go check my list of what authors are going to be there!
This book, let's just say it sucked me in right away and I was hooked!  And it was awesome to start reading it during the big snow storm so that I had all the snow days off of school to really get it read.  Now, I've also mentioned that I don't always jump at any and all vampire stories.  And often the idea of a world where vampires rule, etc., just doesn't draw me in.  But this was done in a way that we weren't in with the vampire society all the time, we were following the main character, Allie Sekemoto, who lived in the Fringes around the vampire city.  With people who chose not to be registered, so they weren't required to give blood weekly, or monthly, or whatever the requirement was.  She wasn't a "pet" of the vampires, so it was like a post-apocalyptic world, the kind of story I do enjoy.  Allie and the "gang" she lived with had to fight for their territory sometimes, and also had to try to find their own food.  One day Allie went outside even the fences that surround where she lives with her gang, into the area that is full of rabids.  Rabids are vampire/zombies that people became from the Red Lung disease that I read about in 'Til the World Ends.  Out there she found a whole shed/basement FULL of canned food and all kinds of good stuff.  When she takes her friends out there, after her own close call with a bunch of rabids, something goes wrong and they get attacked.  As they try to run back to the fenced in area, two are killed, and as Allie tries to get back, she is overtaken by the rabids and passes out while being fed on.  She awakes to the sound of a voice, the voice of a vampire.  He is offering her a choice.  He can end her pain by giving her a quicker death, or he can end her pain by turning her into a vampire, still a death, but she gets to keep her life going.  She chooses to become a vampire.  Once she changes and wakes up, her vampire maker, Kanin, begins to teach her the rules of being a vampire.  And how to fight, etc.  She learns that he is hated by the other vampires, for his role in the past which caused the rabids to form in the first place.  And because of this he is hunted.  When it seems they have been caught, he sends her away, out of the town, past the fences, because anyone knowing she was related to Kanin would kill her.  So as she is travelling, she runs into a group of humans.  She is able to fit in because they have learned to travel at night,  which works for her because she must sleep all day and stay out of the sun.  She has to try to fake eating, etc.  But she is happy to be surrounded by humans, and to do what she can to help them.
Of course, as you know must happen, she will come to be found out eventually, and she must decide whether to try to help them from the sidelines, or go on her own way.
The story reminds me also of road trip types of stories, like The Stand, The Long Walk, Swan Song, and even a bit of shows like The Walking Dead.  A group of survivors trying to get somewhere, always distrust between some, dangers, like rabids, or vampires, or people working for the vampires.  No food, etc.  I love, love, LOVED the book!  I'll definitely be recommending it to people, and eagerly awaiting the sequel, The Eternity Cure, due out this April!   So happy I don't even have to wait that long!