Blog Tour + Guest Post + Giveaway - Everything Under The Sun by Jessica Redmerski

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Everything Under The Sun by Jessica Redmerski
Publication date: August 28th 2017
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Suspense

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

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 Author’s Favorite Scenes | EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN

I wrote EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN over the span of about three years, so there are many scenes that really stuck out for me. One of my most memorable was, by far, the time when Atticus and Thais have their first real ‘argument’. It happens in the cabin after a certain event that I will not spoil here, and the scene, for me, was very intense and emotional to write. I felt like my heart was breaking and filling up at the same time.

Another one of my favorite scenes—and apparently many readers as well—was the arena scene, when Atticus is forced to fight to the death, gauntlet-style. And I admit, while writing it, I felt like I was there, seeing it through Thais’ eyes—which is why her reaction to what was happening to the man she loves was so brave and dangerous. In this story, it’s certainly not only the guy who saves the girl, as Thais, regardless of her peaceful nature and small stature, is far from being the damsel-in-distress type. She is strong and fearless, and she proves that not only in the arena scene, but time and time again.

Author Bio

Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and award winner who juggles several genres of fiction.

She also writes as J.A. Redmerski.

 

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Blog Tour + Guest Post + Giveaway - Harbinger (Dragonrider Legacy #2) by Nicole Conway

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Harbinger (Dragonrider Legacy #2)

by Nicole Conway

Publisher:  Month9Books

Publication Date:  August 14, 2018

Victory is written in the blood of the brave. As the armies of the Tibran Empire continue to march across Maldobar, a path of scorched destruction and despair is left in their wake. Even with the formidable princess, Jenna Farrow, leading the charge, the strength of the dragonriders is waning. Tibran victory appears inevitable—especially after Princess Jenna and Prince Aubren are taken hostage by the infamous Lord Argonox. Separated from her brother and tortured for information, Princess Jenna refuses to bend to the iron will of Argonox. But her strength and resolve may only last so long. Held prisoner in his dark tower, it would take a miracle to set her free—or perhaps a pair of demigods and their dragons. With revived dragonrider legend, Jaevid Broadfeather, at his side, Reigh must now make a choice: face the truth about the origin of his dark powers, or turn his back on world in need. But throwing off a lifetime of shame and self-doubt is not so easily done—especially when the cost of failure means the destruction of the world. The long-awaited hero has awakened. The ancient spirits are stirring. The dark goddess has chosen her champion. But is he ready to embrace that rite and become the HARBINGER Maldobar needs him to be?

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PRINCESS JENNA FARROW – Character Discussion

I don’t usually hit it off with female narrators – reading or writing them. In fact, in the past, I have dutifully avoided writing from the perspective of a female narrator because I just find it uncomfortable. Why? I’m honestly not sure. But that wasn’t the case for Jenna. From the start, she was comfortable. She felt real. I really hope readers will come to like her as much as I did.

Jenna is strong. She’s fierce, brave, and takes her dragonrider oath very seriously. But she’s still a woman—so I had to find a way to convey her strength without compromising her humanity or her femininity. She’s a little rough around the edges because she’s spent most of her life surrounded by men after losing her mother at a young, formative age. She’s more comfortable in pants than skirts because she wants to dress for functionality not fashion. She struggles with anxiety and self-doubt. She’s in denial about falling in love everyone expects her to. She has a temper, but a deeply empathetic heart. She loves her family fiercely and would give anything for them. After getting to know her, for me, I began to agree more and more with Felix’s choice to make her queen over Aubren.

About the Author

  

Nicole is the author of the children’s fantasy series, THE DRAGONRIDER CHRONICLES, about a young boy’s journey into manhood as he trains to become a dragonrider. She has completed the first two books in the series, and is now working on the third and final book.  Other works include MAD MAGIC (Sept 2017), FAULBENDER (tbd), SCALES (tbd), and THE DISTANCE BETWEEN STARS (May 2017).

Originally from a small town in North Alabama, Nicole moves frequently due to her husband’s career as a pilot for the United States Air Force. She received a B.A. in English with a concentration in Classics from Auburn University, and will soon attend graduate school.

She has previously worked as a freelance and graphic artist for promotional companies, but has now embraced writing as a full-time occupation.

Nicole enjoys hiking, camping, shopping, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends. She also loves watching children’s movies and collecting books. She lives at home with her husband, two cats, and dog.

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Blog Tour + Guest Post + Giveaway - How to Breathe Underwater by Vicky Skinner

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How to Breathe Underwater by Vicky Skinner
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: August 14th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Kate’s father has been pressuring her to be perfect for her whole life, pushing her to be the best swimmer she can be. But when Kate finds her dad cheating on her mom, Kate’s perfect world comes crashing down, and Kate is forced to leave home and the swim team she’s been a part of her whole life.

Now in a new home, new school, and faced with the prospect of starting over, Kate isn’t so sure that swimming is what she wants anymore. But when she decides to quit, her whole world seems to fall apart. But when Kate gets to know Michael, the cute boy that lives across the hall, she starts to think that starting over might not be so bad. There’s only one problem: Michael has a girlfriend.

As the pressures of love, family, and success press down on her, can Kate keep her head above water?

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What Inspired Me to Write HOW TO BREATHE UNDERWATER

Hi, everyone! I hope you’re having an absolutely excellent day because I have arrived to be your Debbie Downer!

I love hearing about what inspires a particular story. Half the time, there’s a real-life event that catapulted a writer into the midst of a great novel, and I love to hear those stories. To me, the real-life inspiration of a story is almost as important as the story itself.

So, I’d love to share with you the inspiration for my book, How to Breathe Underwater. First, I should say, when I wrote this book, it looked nothing like the book that sits on the shelf at Barnes and Noble today. When I first wrote it, it was a story about a girl who sees her best friend almost drown in the ocean and so decides to never set foot in the water again.

The story today goes like this, Kate is a champion swimmer, but when she catches her father, who is also her lifelong swim coach, cheating on her mom, she’s suddenly uprooted and relocated to a town where she has to start over: new school, new friends, new team, new life. Only, she isn’t so sure she wants to swim anymore, and she’s falling hard for the boy across the hall.

I wrote the first draft of the book in 2010, a year after what I’ve dubbed “the worst summer of my life.” When I graduated high school, I had my whole life planned out. I was going to school in Colorado, where I would live for the rest of my life, writing novels. Only, two weeks before classes started, an unforeseen problem kept me from going to Colorado, and instead, I ended up living with my parents and going to the nearest community college in Texas. That story has a very happy ending, but at the time, it was the worst, and I was convinced that I was being punished. You see, I was a violinist in high school, and when I graduated, I decided to quit, which meant no music scholarships and no music programs and a lot of disappointment from everyone in my family.

Lucky for me, when I fell into one of the deepest depressions of my life, a good friend of mine showed up on my doorstep and refused to leave until I felt better. She took care of me. She made sure I ate, she spent the night so I wouldn’t be alone, she forced me to watch the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series (which was awesome!). And shortly after, I had to scrape myself off the couch for my sister’s wedding, which proved to be the beginning of the end of that particular episode.

Almost a year later, I met my husband, and everything started to make sense. Everything in my life seemed to fall into place, and I realized that I had gone through something pretty awful so that I could get to something amazing.

But that awful thing still happened, and it still affects me to this day, so I wrote about it. I wrote about meeting my husband; I wrote about having my life upended by a parent; I even wrote about a toxic relationship I had with an authority figure in high school that I didn’t realize I wasn’t over until I had already signed the contract for this book.

So the moral of the story is, put your pain to paper. For me, emotions don’t die. They just get moved around until I have a chance to write about them. So even though that summer and that crap from high school felt like it had gone away, it hadn’t, and it reared its ugly head when I most needed it to.

So when you look at Kate, know that I, too, went through a big change that made my life fall apart, but just like Kate, I survived (spoiler!).

Author Bio

Born and raised in Texas, I don’t act like much of a Texan. I like cold weather and hate country music. I have a gorgeous husband, two dogs, and a Literature degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. If I’m not at home reading a book or doing laundry, I’m probably at the bookstore, nannying three rambunctious boys, or stuck on the side of the road with car trouble. I’m a reader, a writer, and a bit of a crazy person.

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