"The Haunt of Thirteen Curves" by Jeanne Arnold

NEW RELEASE and GIVEAWAY

The Haunt of Thirteen Curves

by Jeanne Arnold

The Haunt of Thirteen Curves has just been released. This book blitz and giveaway is brought to you by Itching For Books Tours. Please be sure to visit the other participating blogs as well.

Description

"In the armory, things can be convincing and impossible. Just like Elias."

Seventeen-year-old Marcella Jackoby’s bleak reality is altered when she encounters the apparition of a grieving bride wandering the deadly thirteen curves outside of Pennywright. Intent on capturing Marcella, the bride seeks to populate a mythical castle disguised as an abandoned armory, where young guests tirelessly battle an alliance of recluses in order to live with the promise of eternal youth and love.

Unaware of Elias Hawk’s efforts to safeguard her from untimely death, and in spite of the fact that he and the kids residing at the armory are not what they appear to be, Marcella falls for this enigmatic young man. As she uncovers Elias’s century-old secret, Marcella’s home life crumbles and an encounter with a roughneck adversary threatens her budding relationship and the existence of the armory’s residents, unintentionally leading Marcella to ignite a war between the worlds, endangering the couple’s future in a shocking twist of fate.

Excerpt

A tall boy breezes in. A set of louvered doors flaps back and forth like angry butterfly wings.

“We’re not looking to expand,” he addresses the dinner party in a curt tone, wielding a knife and a loaf of steaming bread. The plates and cutlery on the table jump when he drops the bread and then slices it with precision. Nobody acknowledges the knife lifting dramatically in the air. Only Marcella holds her breath.

The hairs on her neck straighten as if she’s been zapped by an electric current. The air has transformed around her. An unsettling energy passes through her and collectively awakens every nerve, muscle and cell in her body. Who’s this boy no one else notices?

“Aren’t you hungry?” Nissa turns to Marcella and gives her a labored expression. She taps Marcella’s plate with her glass of milk.

Marcella finds it strange that these kids aren’t devouring hamburgers or pizza or soda. She whispers, “No. I think I’m going to be sick.”

The tall boy with the knife is now walking around the table in slow motion, his hands behind his back, a plaid shirt tied around his waist. His brows are furrowed, and Marcella is aware that he’s subtly checking her out.

The skin behind her ears prickles. She’s reluctant to move at all. The boy makes her uneasy. The force strengthens as he closes the space between them.

“Ignore him,” Vernie says and bumps Marcella’s shoulder. “That high horse does this every time we eat. Have a bite. Then he’ll go away.”

Marcella notices the boy scrutinizing the dishes on the table. Her nerves ratchet. If someone could read her thoughts, they’d laugh. She can’t help feeling the boy is irritated with her. Like his comment was intended for her.

Still, she’s not sure she wants him to go away so soon.

When he gets to the side of the table where Vernie, Marcella and Nissa are sitting, he stops at Vernie’s back where her chestnut-colored braid is twisted into a fancy bun.

Marcella glances at the floor and sees his slippers. She gulps as the realization hits her.

“Be nice,” Vernie hisses at the boy. She gasps when he slaps his knife down on the table in front of her full plate.

“I’ll clue you in. That’s Mammoth Red Rock cabbage with Gala apple slices. Snapped the neck right off that turkey myself. Dig in already,” he says with a hint of brag and a hint of irritation that she hasn’t eaten much because her tongue has been running. The boy’s voice is deep, yet youthful.

Marcella blushes when he speaks. The blood filling her cheeks is painful. Her stomach is so mixed up she can’t eat to save her own life. With hopes he won’t address her empty plate, the damage she caused in his room, she tries to appear invisible. But she can never be invisible. She’s more obvious surrounded by her peers than the sun shining in a cloudless sky.

The boy continues on his loop around the feast.  He’s not the older man Marcella took him for. He’s Elias Hawk—a boy who’s merely the ripe old age of nineteen.

Featured Review

By Jules Kay

I loved this book! I was so excited to start reading, and I hated to put it down. I loved the characters and the way Jeanne brought them to life. There is suspense, drama, and romance all rolled up in this story. A couple sneaky twists that kept me on my toes. By the end of the book, I felt like Marcy was someone I knew in real life. Jeanne is a wonderful story teller. There is only one problem with reading the book so quickly, it makes the wait for the next release longer.

Guest Post by the Author

Five truths behind The Haunt of Thirteen Curves

The Haunt of Thirteen Curves was inspired by a haunting legend. I found inspiration to write the paranormal tale while tagging along with my husband, a local historian, when he visited cemeteries and local history sites. Over the years I heard accounts of suspicious happenings on the thirteen curves. Most of them involved a wandering ghost bride and kids with video cameras looking for a scary encounter.

My Scandinavian heritage finds a way into all of my stories. The abandoned Asgard Armory atop the thirteen curves is modeled after Valhalla, the castle in the sky. The roving bride who wanders the curves looking to collect “fallen soldiers” is inspired by the Valkyrie. Throughout the novel I use pieces of Norwegian folklore and mythology.

The heroine in The Haunt of Thirteen Curves is Marcella Jackoby. She’s named after a town called Marcellus in Central New York where the real thirteen curves can be found.

Writing about first love is my specialty and my passion. The Haunt of Thirteen Curves would not be a true young adult romance without the building anticipation, the tension, the butterflies … and the mind-blowing first kiss.

I’ve always wanted to write a character with an eye patch. The Haunt of Thirteen Curves gave me the opportunity to bring in a boy named Loring with a unique backstory. Despite his eye decoration, he’s well-suited to rival Elias Hawk, the main love interest, for Marcella’s attention.

About the Author

Jeanne Arnold is an author of young adult romance. At a young age she found her creative outlet in art, and for years her fictional characters came to life in drawings and paintings, until they demanded a voice. Now they grace the pages of her stories. 

Jeanne shares her time with her fictional teenage counterparts and her human family in Central New York. Stubborn is available in ebook, print and audiobook at all major online retailers. Look for The Haunt of Thirteen Curves in July 2014 and Just as Stubborn, the second installment in the Stubborn series, in January 2015.

Giveaway

Enter the blitz-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links

Add to Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

ARe

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Smashwords

Amazon US author page

Amazon UK author page

Smashwords author page

Blog

Facebook

Goodreads

Pinterest

Tumblr

Twitter @jeannesbooks

Website

"Myself in Blue" by Renata F. Barcelos

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY

Myself in Blue

by Renata F. Barcelos

Myself in Blue is currently on tour with Itching For Books Tours. The tour stops here today for my review and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.

Description

Romance, redemption, and psychedelic rock in 1989.

Sunday Morning is nineteen and recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma. She finds it fair: a deathly cancer to pay for her sins.

The fourth of five daughters, Sunday could never overcome the jealousy she felt for her sisters, especially the youngest and her Rett Syndrome with all the attention she required. She knows her resentment and rebellion as a wayward teen brought tragedy to her family, but never learned exactly the extent. Self-exiled in Brazil living a hard life of penitence for five years, she finally feels it's possible to come back and try to mend things.

Scott Goodwin writes bestseller biographies and always dreamed of writing about his idol, Grandma's Eye's vocalist, Iris Morning. The singer and her husband, Douglas Oshiro, have been reclusive since 1984, when their famous psychedelic rock band announced a surprising halt. Scott is thrilled when Iris finally agrees to let him write the book and even more so when she explains why. She hopes the bio will help finding her daughter Sunday and rebuild her shattered family.

It is Sunday, however, who finds Scott. Still too mortified to face her family, she offers her story to Scott in exchange for inside information about them. Scott has no idea how intensely the deal will change their lives when he agrees.

Through her own family's history, from the first Oshiros and Mornings, WWII impact on her ancestors and the struggle to form the band despite Iris' abusive stepfather--the chain of events that led to the band's success, the birth of a new generation, and the night that changed everything--Scott will try to show Sunday that nobody is perfect, and perhaps everything happens for a reason.

Sunday and Scott may not have much time, with her diagnosis and the fact that she doesn't feel worthy of redemption, but he will not give up easily. Scott has become Sunday's only link to the past, and perhaps her only chance to have a future.

Book Video

Excerpt

“You know, being an immigrant runaway doesn’t pay as much as you’d think. I’m broke. All I had I used to buy my ticket home and some food. I’ve been around, trying to learn more about them, trying to see how things are.” She points over her shoulder to the back seat, where I left some older notes I didn’t need today. “So, you’re writing my mother’s biography?”

I only nod, with the increasing feeling that I’m inside a novel making me slightly dizzy.

“Would you like to have my point of view on it?”

“What?”

“My side, you know. What it was like being their kid, where I’ve been, things like that.”

When an offer is too good to be true, and too unexpected, one might feel like they are falling into a trap, but I still cannot stop myself from agreeing enthusiastically.

“Yes, of course!”

She nods solemnly, as if we’ve just sealed a deal.

“Okay, you can have it. But only if you agree to help me, to tell me how things are now, and if you don’t tell Mama I’m back. Not yet, at least.”

 “What? I can’t do that!”

“That’s the only way. I need more inside info before deciding to reveal myself, and that’s where you come in. I’m really not ready to face Mama yet.”

“Come on, Sunday, be reasonable. You need a place to stay, you need your family! Your mother is really worried about you, and I don’t want to betray her confidence by hiding something so huge from her.”

“If you disagree I’ll go away and you'll never hear from me again. I can do that, I have experience.”

It’s a difficult promise to make. I feel like I am deceiving Iris in an unforgivable way, and I'm not sure I’ll be able to live with that. But on the other hand, what choice do I have? I can’t leave Iris’ daughter on the street, in this condition. And I can’t simply go inside and announce that I found Sunday and then lost her again because I disagreed with playing on her terms.

It sounds like something Iris would not only understand but approve, and I imagine her telling me; do what Sunday says and keep her close. Try and convince her to go back to her family.

“Why did you decide to come back now?” I ask, afraid that I already know the answer. Iris told me Sunday needed her more than ever. That she felt as though her girl was in trouble. It isn’t difficult to see. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”

She nods slowly and swallows something, probably tears, before speaking.

“Actually, not sick. Wait. What’s your name again? You know mine but I never got yours.”

“Scott. Scott Goodwin.”

“Well, Scott, not just sick. Dying might be a better word.”

I stare at her, blood thumping in my ears.

“I’m dying, Scott.”

Favorite Lines

Sunday

"So much has happened to me in the past five years that I think now, at twenty, I've become older than all people in my family. Not wiser, just older."

"I'm rotting from the inside out starting with my leg; something called osteosarcoma, eating me alive."

"I guess it's poetic in a way; I deserve every cancerous cell that rebelled against its sisters and started a war my body is doomed to lose. You may see the parallel; I was a cancer in my family, acting in the same way that's going to kill me."

"I suppose that since I was the youngest for five long and delicious years, I convinced myself that after three previous tryouts, they'd finally reached perfection with me, and didn't need to try anymore. I was the last baby because I was perfect and they were finally content with the result."

"For a while, when we were little, my sisters and I thought 'Douglas' and 'Iris' were synonyms for soulmates, so perfect did my parents seem together. I wanted to grow up and meet my Douglas. We all wanted to."

"I couldn't forgive them. Neither my parents for having another child, and a malfunctioning one, nor Earth, for being an invader, stealing their affection from me and ruining our status as a perfect family."

"There's always something better to do than sleeping ..."

"That's the case with cats; they own us, and it's never the opposite. Don't be fooled, you'll never have a cat - they may let you think that if it's convenient, but they are the bosses and you're more like staff."

"The entire wall filled with books warms my hearm more than one might expect."

"I hold my treasure with the excitement only books can provide me lately."

"He nods solemnly and we share another one of our silences that have all the ingredients for being awkward but remain full of comfort and ease."

"I turn my eyes toward his, trying to figure out if I'm so transparent that anyone would see that, or if it's Scott's special power to crack me open and read my insides like that."

Scott

"Sometimes fate smiles at us. Sometimes it beams."

"I only nod, with the increasing feeling that I'm inside a novel making me slightly dizzy."

"I feel like she's been part of my life for much longer than just the half hour we've been together."

"A fiction writer has to create an entire person from scratch, imagining his or her innermost thoughts, how they talk, how they act, how the sneeze, if they are slow, if they stutter, if they have a limp, if they bite their nails, if they blink when they're nervous ... I find it amazing how they do it. It's too much for me. I don't think I could be responsible for so much, playing God like that. I prefer to just be the narrator of a story that has already been created."

"'Come on Oz, let's have some breakfast, shall we?' Like every morning, Oz reacts to this as if I have invited him to Dog Disneyland with all expenses paid. It must be so easy being a dog; everything overly delights you."

"She's the personification of a psychology stereotype. The girl who tries so hard to punish her parents - for reasons she ends up confusing or forgetting altogether along the way - and ends up punishing herself more than anyone else without realizing it. Or, in her case, realizing it too late. She still thinks she's not worth anything good, not worth returning to her family, even though she misses and needs them."

"Another silence falls, and with the arrival of each new one I notice how comfortable they are becoming. You know how sometimes you are alone with someone and there's nothing so say, and it feels so awkward that you start babbling just to fill the void? Well, it's nothing like that with Sunday. It feels like we've known each other for so long that we could stay here savoring the silence for as long as we want. It seems safe to talk, and safe not to."

"It tastes even better than I imagined from the smell. It's all I can do to eat with a fork and knife like a human being and not to attack the plate with my face."

"I'd give anything to take the haunting memories away from her mind and give Sunday the peace she deserves."

My Review

By Lynda Dickson

The year is 1989. Sunday Morning is the daughter of Iris Morning and Douglas Oshiro, who are the lead singer and a musician in the cult band, Grandma's Eye. Sunday is a bad seed, "dark inside, trouble waiting to happen." Something happened late 1983, when she was nearly fifteen, leading her to run away from home to Brazil. Five years later, now aged twenty, Sunday is dying of osteosarcoma and wants to return home but can't quite bring herself to do so. She believes she deserves the cancer because of her past behavior, especially her poor treatment of her younger sister Earth, who suffers from Rett Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Scott Goodwin is commissioned to write the biography of Iris Morning, who also wants him to help find her daughter Sunday and reunite the family. Scott is left in an invidious position when Sunday seeks him out and agrees to tell him her side of the story as long as he keeps her return a secret from her family. Through Scott's notes and tape recordings we learn about Sunday's family history, and we are left to wonder what went so horribly wrong.

The story is told alternately from the points-of-view of Sunday and Scott. This leads to some repetition and too much introspection from both characters. There are numerous editing errors including lack of quotation marks, especially when Sunday is telling Scott her story. The book is overly-long and in need of a severe edit. It is apparent the author is trying to display her knowledge of Brazil, but there is too much irrelevant detail on topics such as the metric system, coffee, vegetarianism, pets, the Portuguese language, a homeless poet, food, cooking, diet, TV shows, and football.

On the plus side, there are some lovely and insightful lines, and the story is compelling.

About the Author

Renata F. Barcelos lives in Brazil with her teenage daughter, Maria, constantly complaining about the heat and dreaming of moving somewhere snowy.

She has a Law Degree, but promises never to use it. She prefers to study and teach languages and to write. Facing a three-hour daily commute, Renata uses this time to listen to audiobook after audiobook, plot, and write. Sometimes she hurts herself walking and writing at the same time - forgetting to look where she’s going.

Her characters usually don’t respect her wishes, taking the stories to places she never imagined they could go; she loves it when that happens. Renata is always working on a new novel, and so far has four published books: Mean, My Sore Hush-a-Bye, Merge (FREE from B&N and Smashwords) and Myself in Blue.

Giveaway

Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win some great prizes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links

Add to Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Smashwords

Amazon US author page

Amazon UK author page

Barnes & Noble author page

Smashwords author page

Blog

Facebook

Goodreads

Google+

LinkedIn

Pinterest

Twitter @RenataFBarcelos

YouTube

"Devour" by Jill Cooper

NEW RELEASE and GIVEAWAY

Devour

by Jill Cooper

Devour by Jill Cooper has just been released and is currently ON SALE for only $0.99.

This book blitz and giveaway is brought to you by Itching for Books Tours. Please be sure to visit the other participating blogs as well.

Description

Life in Gloucester Massachusetts will never be the same.

Raging storms, fierce winds, shadows shifting in the breeze. Storms are nothing new for the fishing hamlet.

But darkness has come to claim the hearts and minds of those that stand in it too long. When that happens, love will be ripped from man leaving only violence, despair, and gnashing teeth.

Except for two.

Roberta is a single mom, a waitress struggling to get through life after a rocky start tainted by murder and loss. Her heart yearns for Gabriel; a deputy living in the shadow of the chief. He's a battle weary soldier ready to settle down.

When the storm comes, when the murders start, it will be up to them to stop it before darkness isn't just an empty void.

Before it takes the shape of man and pulls them all into the sea.

Book Trailer

Excerpt

The door chimed and I glanced over, fluffing my red curls slightly. He was right on time.

With brooding wide shoulders, Deputy Gabriel Manning could fill out a uniform in all the right places. His hair was sandy brown, and soft like an ocean’s wave.  My heart skipped a beat in the way it had when I knew Gabriel growing up, but what girl hadn’t had a crush on him?

“Deputy.” I said with a smile as I poured a cup of coffee into a Styrofoam cup and attached a lid. “Danish?”

“Not today. I have to watch the calories.” Gabriel smiled and patted his perfectly flat stomach. Perfectly perfect was more like it. On more than one occasion I had imagined him without his shirt. Always made me feel guilty, I wasn’t ready to move on, and he just wasn’t my friend.

He was Rick’s friend too.

That just made it a whole host of complicated and while I knew Gabriel should have been off-limits, nobody told my heart that.

He took the coffee and his fingers swept across mine gently, but I knew he did it on purpose. It made me blush, but my heart sprouted wings.  He had been working up to something for a while, but I never said anything. Always pretended I didn’t notice. My heart shouted at me through a bullhorn to say or do anything, but the guilt stopped me.

Guilt like I was betraying my dead soon-to-be-husband with his closest friend. Meanwhile Rick was somewhere at the bottom of Gloucester Harbor, still never found.

Featured Review

By cm3

Having lived in New England for half my life I am drawn to any book that is based there. Add the fact that Jill Cooper wrote the book, the author of my favorite Glistening series, I'm there.

Devour is a romance/horror book. I wish more authors wrote in this genre. Roberta is an awesome MC, she has torment, hardship and is a single mom. She lost her fiancé to the sea and is pretty much left alone and very young as the sole provider for her daughter. Basically, besides her daughter, she has nothing left to lose. She's had weird things happen to her pretty much all her life but when the townspeople around start acting VERY strange, it's hard for Roberta to duck her head as usual and ignore it. In walks her knight in shining fatigues, Gabe, who is her fiancées best friend. That's when things get really interesting.

Devour is an awesome blend of romance and horror. It's was a fantastic read, I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the genre like me. It was fast paced and kept you thinking the entire book. I love when books aren't predictable. I find contemporary romances and NA books can be that way but when you throw horror in there? All bets are off.

About the Author

Author of the YA Dream Slayer series, Jill loves to blend horror, comedy, the supernatural, and love, through her novels. A fan of genre blending, her work strives to cross boundries, but most of all strives to entertain.

She loves soft cuddly cats, warm blankets, and paranormal romances.

Jill resides in Massachusetts, is constantly renovating her home that she shares with her husband, young daughter, and two skittish cats.

Giveaway

Enter the blitz-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links

Add to Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

Smashwords

Amazon US author page

Amazon UK author page

Barnes & Noble author page

Smashwords author page

Blog

Facebook

Goodreads

Google+

Pinterest

Twitter @jillybug

Website

YouTube