Book Tour
Animal Allies Series Book One
Written by Ondine Sherman
Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, #LoveOZYA
252 Pages
Published April 15th 2019
Thank you to Pantera Press
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★★★★
Friendship can be found in the unlikeliest of places.
After her mother's death, Sky leaves her city life to move in with her aunt and uncle in a small Australian town. Life in a new place isn’t easy, and Sky finds comfort in the friendship of a stray dog she meets along the way.
But her new friends at school are another story, and as Sky struggles to fit in, she finds herself doing things that go against everything she believes in.
When Sky stumbles on a case of animal cruelty, she is forced to question what’s really important to her and who she wants to be.
Fifteen year old Sky Lawson is grieving the loss of her mother, moving to the country town of West Creek with the estranged sister of her mother and husband. Sky is an impassioned vegan and patron for animal protection, using her Instagram account as an extension of herself and her advocacy. Isolated and alone within the small farming community, Sky is overwhelmed by her new environment including West Creek Public School, willing to compromise her integrity for inclusion. Navigating friendships, relationships, insecurity and separation.
Sky Lawson is mourning the loss of her mother to an aggressive cancer, her father unbeknown and her only immediate family is Paula, the estranged sister of her mother and her husband David who live in the pastoral town of West Creek. Sky is abrasive, she's aware she's treating her aunt with disdain but unfortunately cannot see past her own grief to realise her aunt is also mourning the loss of her sister. Sky has been displaced and while Paula and David have created a safe and loving environment, Sky is anxious and her concern lies within her ability to connect and create new friendships, including impressing popular, obnoxious girl Marissa, overlooking quiet achiever Lucy.
Behaving irrationally, Sky has lost her sense of awareness and compassion, choosing to abandon her veganism in favour of popularity. Throughout the narration, Sky begins to mature and realises how her behaviour has effected those around her, specifically Paula, David and friend Lucy. The tentative friendship Sky and Lucy shared was lovely, the girls are very similar in their advocacy and collaborate on the animal welfare investigation. Her online friendship with Wild Rider was wonderful, as he provided Sky with companionship and compassion, lessening the feelings of isolation. Potential love interest Oliver, although considered popular, was also a conservationist and animal advocate. His friendship with Marissa was peculiar and superficial, creating unnecessary tension.
The themes of animal protection and advocacy were gentle and wonderfully informative. Sky begins to investigate animal cruelty at local poultry business, coinciding with a school assignment. Sky discovers malnourished and malformed chickens, diagnosed with issues such as heart disease, osteoporosis and tibial dyschondplasia in inhumane conditions. Although it advocates for animal protection, it doesn't lecture or attempt to coerce readers into vegetarian or veganism, only the ethical treatment of animals.
Ondine Sherman has created a narrative that encourages discussion surrounding animal welfare and performative activism, gently encouraging readers to consciously choose to purchase and consume products that are sustainable, ethically sourced and certifiably organic. Thoroughly enjoyed it and anticipating the next Animal Allies installment.
Ondine Sherman has created a narrative that encourages discussion surrounding animal welfare and performative activism, gently encouraging readers to consciously choose to purchase and consume products that are sustainable, ethically sourced and certifiably organic. Thoroughly enjoyed it and anticipating the next Animal Allies installment.
Follow the Sky Review Tour here.
As part of the Bloomsbury Australia blog tour, I'm celebrating the release of The Priory of the Orange Tree by celebrating the the magnificent females of acclaimed author Samantha Shannon's Queendom.
Written by Samantha Shannon
Adult, Fantasy, Dragons
848 Pages
Gifted by Bloomsbury Australia
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A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady in waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Eadaz Duryan
Eadaz is a young woman placed within a foreign kingdom to safeguard the Queen. Eadaz resides within the palatial compound, her forthright sincerity winning the favour of the Queen as she is elevated to a lady of the bedchamber and secretly safeguarding Sabran against cutthroats. Although committed to the mages of the Priory of The Orange Tree, Eadaz is conflicted by her affection for Sabran. Her close proximity to Sabran will endanger the Queendom and her life.
Queen Sabran Berethnet
The Nameless One, a dragon that brought upon the Grief of Ages that decimated Queendoms is rousing once more, the prophesy leading Sabran, a young Queen coerced into matrimony for political alliance to conceive a daughter. Sabran is an independent woman and although tenacious and resolute, her anxiety and affliction is palpable. Suitors for her affections are presented to the court, Sabran expected to choose a notable partner and conceive to protect her Queendom against the slumbering dragons. She is plagued by nightmares of children lost within the forest, of mages who practice forbidden magic.
Without a Berethnet heir, the Queendom will be overthrown.
Tané Miduchi
Tané Miduchi is a young woman born of a lowly caste and an aspiring dragonrider. On the eve the Choosing Day when riders will learn heir fate, she rescues a young man that emerges from the ocean and risking the Draconic Plague, arranges the stranger to be concealed illegally upon the island peninsula. In her position as student, Tané has experienced blatant socioeconomic and classist prejudice. Degraded and tormented as a successful young woman on the threshold of entering the prestigious Dragonriders.
Females Of The Queendom
The Donmata Marosa, Crown Princess of the Draconic Kingdom of Yscalin.
The Dowager Duchess of Zeedeur. Kalyba, the Lady of the Woods.
The Pirate Captain, sovereign of the Sundance Sea with forty thousand pirates under her command.
Mita Yedanya, The Prioress.
And, Dragon Nayimathun of the Deep Snows.
Who run the world
Of our matriarchal societies. Of women in authority. Women who aspire. Women who achieve. It's diverse women. It's women who love women. It's females who are vulnerable, resilient and determined. It's women at our finest. The heroine. The villainous. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a celebration of women. Let queendom reign!
No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.
Nymph: The Love Oracles is available now.
Thank you to Jaclyn and the team at Walker Books
Check out my Review
The Love Oracles is a love story based on Greek mythological characters set in modern times. It chronicles the story of Merope, a Pleiad star nymph, who falls in love with Lukas, a mortal boy who lives on an olive farm on a small Greek island. The relationship between Lukas and Merope is forbidden and so a wild journey of gods, men and monsters unfolds as the two struggle to find a way to be together. A fun and flirty teen read that will appeal to the fans of Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush series. She's Tonya Alexandra, and she's an Author on the grill.
You can read my review of Captivate by clicking here.
Captivate was a brilliant read that will transport readers into the dangerous, yet brilliant underwater world of Marin. When I had the opportunity to ask Vanessa to guest post, of course I jumped at the chance.
How the idea for Miranda's story come about?
Answer:
The first vision I had was of Miranda and Marko in a beautiful garden under glittering lights. I knew they were somewhere different, somewhere foreign, and from this one scene, the rest of the story unfolded. I knew right away that Miranda was facing issues in her real life that she'd rather run from. And also, from this scene, I could sense that she was afraid to love, that she'd lost loved ones in the past and therefore was afraid to form new relationships of any kind. In a strange way, it all unfolded rather organically after that.
What made you decide to set Miranda's story underwater?
Answer:
I liked the idea of Miranda being whisked away to a magical underwater city, where she might think at first (despite the new obstacles she faces) that she can escape all the issues she's been having with her sister and herself. Instead, Miranda's new situation, her captivity in the city of Marin, actually allows her to see the fractured relationship with her sister in a new light. She finds hidden layers within herself she never knew about, grows in confidence, and this changes how Miranda sees herself in the world.
How did the character of Marko come about?
Answer:
Marko, along with Miranda, appeared fully formed in that very first scene. He was the one character throughout writing Captivate whose motives never changed once. He was my favourite to write. He was so conflicted by what 'must be done' and what he wanted to do, that every scene he was in held some kind of conflict, making him very interesting to write.
What elements of Robbie's character did you enjoy writing most?
Answer:
Robbie's internal conflict. He is strong in a physical sense, and yet beneath all that muscle lies a deeply sensitive soul. It eats him up inside that he was the one who dragged Miranda from the sea and brought her to Marin. But it was his loyalty to Marko that caused him to carry it out. As his friendship with Miranda develops, poor Robbie is twisted up inside with guilt. He keeps trying to justify his actions, but in the end feels sickened by what he has done to this innocent, broken girl.
Who is your favourite secondary character from Captivate?
Answer:
It would have to be Damir. I love his psychoticness and the fact that he has this obsession with mermaids that formed in childhood from a story his grandfather told him. There is so much back story behind why he is the man he is and I loved exploring that while writing him. There is a lot more of Damir in book 2 (which I completed recently), and it has been so much fun working with a character who doesn't have your average aspirations.
Thanks for having me, Kelly.
About the author
Written By Ambelin Kwaymullina
Science Fiction, Dystopian
Published November 1st 2013
400 Pages
Thank you to Walker Books Australia
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★★★★★
However this ends, you're probably going to find out some things about me, and they're not nice things. But, Ash, even after you know, do you think you could remember the good? And whatever you end up discovering, try to think of me kindly. If you can.Ember Crow is missing. To find her friend, Ashala Wolf must control her increasingly erratic and dangerous Sleepwalking ability and leave the Firstwood. But Ashala doesn't realise that Ember is harbouring terrible secrets and is trying to shield the Tribe and all Illegals from a devastating new threat, her own past.
Since the fall of Neville Rose, escaping the detention centre and returning back to the Firstwood, Ashala has been living with her pack. Drawn into the woods and living as a wolf, Ash attempts to escape her inability to control her Sleepwalking, fearful that she may unconsciously hurt someone of the Tribe, or Connor. But the feeling of freedom and lack of responsibility is short lived, as Georgie and Connor admit that Ember is missing. Ember left the safety of the Firstwood for Gull City, where she had planned to meet the elusive Serpent. Once only a rumor in order to distract the government, a man calling himself The Serpent has emerged at rallies where rebels are challenging the Citizenship Accords and now Ember is missing. But when a dog bounds into the forest carrying one of Ember's memory stones, that may hold the key to Ember's disappearance, Ashala will stop at nothing to find her best friend and bring her home safely.
She is pulled into Ember's memories, in a one sided conversation. Ash discovers that Ember may know who the figure referring to himself as The Serpent is, and if she's proven correct, then Ember refuses to stand idly by. She doesn't know when she'll be able to return to the Firstwood, if at all. Like all members of The Tribe, Ember has a past she would rather forget. But as Ashala begins to ask questions, she may just find more than she bargained for. Ember's only wish is to be remembered kindly and with understanding, in what may be her last goodbye.
Feeling lost and in need of guidance, Ash returns to the lake where the spirit of her grandfather has settled. Speaking within her mind, her grandfather expresses his concern about the world that man once destroyed, and he isn't the only one. Ancient beings and spirits that survived the Reckoning are fearful that man is destined to repeat the atrocities of the past. Ember isn't lost but rather where she has chosen to be, but his warning to beware of the angels leaves Ash feeling uneasy and cautious. Ash had once thought of Connor as an angel since Georgie had likened his perfect features to one of the old world statues. Surely he couldn't be warning Ashala to beware of Connor, could he?
Ash and Connor need to retrace Ember's movements, but remembering her life before arriving at Firstwood, Ash releases that she knows very little of who Ember was. Her father was deeply embedded within the Spinifex City reform movement, but as his health failed, he and Ember fled using the tunnels beneath Firstwood, with her father losing his life before they had arrived. But who was Ember before Firstwood, the inquisitive and feisty young woman is insistent that her past contains secrets that Ash may not be able to forgive.
Jaz's tribe captures an illegal making his way to the Firstwood. Jules is an Impersonator, being able to shift into anyone he has come into contact with and he brings a message from Ember embedded in yet another river stone. What Ash is about to learn about Ember will rock the foundations of not only the Tribe, but society. From the Serpent, how she came about meeting Jules and where she is. But can Ashala reach Ember in time before she disappears believing that Ash didn't have her support and understanding?
Kelly's Thoughts
The Tribe series is phenomenal. Rarely does book two in any series live up to our expectations, but The Disappearance of Ember Crow intensifies the action, the intrigue and adds the extra element of introducing new characters and a science fiction storyline. I loved it immensely. Ambelin is a storyteller, she creates magical and intriguing worlds that you can't help but be immediately drawn into. With an impeccable writing style, the fusion of fantasy, dystopian science fiction and romance is breathtaking.
The Final Verdict
With both The Interrogation Of Ashala Wolf and The Disappearance Of Ember Crow, the story lines are unpredictable, engaging and enthralling. I can't wait for the third and final installment in this series, The Foretelling Of Georgie Spider.
New Year’s Resolutions:
Lloyd Layton will know I exist. He once said three whole words to me, so this is obviously progress. If I don’t get a proper conversation out of him soon, then I’ll take my top off and streak through the cafeteria, because nobody could fail to notice these boobs.
I will not get expelled for streaking through the cafeteria.
Those are the words that begin her mission.
Chessie is fourteen, not pretty enough, and very much in love. Lloyd Layton is hot, popular, and unaware of Chessie’s existence.
Her goal is clear: to get Lloyd to love her as much as she loves him, and she has exactly one year to do it.
As Chessie’s obsession with Lloyd reaches boiling point and she starts to spin a web of lies that spiral out of control, Lloyd turns out to be not quite the prince she thought he was. Can Chessie avoid the gathering storm before things go too far?
Fourteen year old Chessie realises her breasts are larger than most adult women, what she can't understand is how fellow student at Bach Afon Comprehensive School, and full time giant, Lloyd Layton, doesn't seem to notice that she or her breasts exist. Chessie feels a connection to Lloyd, she doesn't need to speak to him, but no doubt he understands how hard is it to fit in when you're different. But although tall beyond his years, Lloyd is popular, wealthy and simply gorgeous. This year is going to be different, Lloyd will finally notice the shy and accident prone Chessie, even if his mere presence brings out the clumsy, nervous, and downright embarrassing side of her. Luckily Chessie has best friends Ewan and Debs, that can see the humor in her madness.
Lloyd has only ever spoken to Chessie once prior, and those three meaningless words, she treasures. But the time has come to make that boy her own, and things seem to be off to a rocky start. Imagine during Algebra, you're crush sits next to you and doesn't understand what's going on. You've got the chance to impress him by showing your book smarts, clearly that will win him over... Unless you start sneezing, you just can't stop, then the killer blow? You sneeze all over his textbook. But in retrospect, that's still not the most embarrassing incident.
A new look is sure to have him notice you, but what if you're short on funds and hair dye can be so expensive these days. Food colouring should do the trick, and it just so happens that you have a bottle of red food dye in the pantry, it's three years out of date, but that shouldn't matter... Right? But it looks nothing as you expected, and turns your normally blonde locks, into a dirty pink colour. But the thing about food colouring? It doesn't wash out. What Chessie is left with, is a pink, dry knotted mess, to add insult to injury, she runs into Lloyd before she can rectify her follicles.
Friend Debs is convinced that Chessie and Lloyd have nothing in common, but Chessie won't hear of it. Lloyd Layton has become her obsession. In a series of disastrous blunders, Chessie can't believe that Lloyd still sees through her, walking into a lamppost and apologising, her allergic reaction to a new foundation, sawing through a table in her workshop class, only to topple over, flailing and looking for something to grab onto... She just never expected it to be Lloyd's crotch. But now it seems Lloyd may be noticing her, for all the wrong reasons.
She's now spent the better part of the school year, chasing after a boy that clearly doesn't want her... Or does he? It seems Lloyd isn't the picture of perfection that Chessie has painted him as, far from it, and Chessie learns that perhaps there may be more to life than having a boyfriend, a lesson that couldn't come soon enough.
Not Pretty Enough is absolutely hilarious! Chessie is obsessed with Lloyd, the boy that has it all. She believes that with her abnormally large breasts and his gigantic height, they could be a match made in heaven. Sadly, Chessie is too shy and decides to watch life from the sidelines. Lloyd brings out the worst in her, lying, scheming and falling over herself. It becomes painfully clear that Chessie is heading for self destruction, but it seems life will teach her a lesson that every teen has faced at one time or another.
I really enjoyed it, until the last few chapters. The fun and hilarity suddenly became too serious, too quickly and threw me for a loop. It was the difference between 3 ½ and 4 ½ stars.
Not Pretty Enough
Written By Jaimie Admans
Published 01 / 07 / 2013
191 Pages
Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people.
Available now on Amazon
Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people.
You can contact Jaimie via Her Website Twitter Facebook or sign up for her Newsletter
To nineteen year old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes, each one different, but beautiful in her own way.
He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.
When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.
But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him.
Travis loves women. He has a body made for worship and just his smile can bring women to their knees. While he can have his pick of women, Travis barely has a roof over his head. He can't afford the rent and eviction is looming. He is a nineteen year old high school student, repeating his senior year... And failing. His father is in prison and his mother won't leave the comfort of her bed. Life is hard being Travis Walker.
Needing to find full time work, Travis temporarily leaves school to start a meaningless heavy labor position, but it isn't enough. On his break between shifts, a stroke of luck brings Travis to the local community center, housing day care for children, and a soup kitchen for the homeless, or those down on their luck. Entering a weekend voluntary junior firefighters training position, Travis is starting to feel that maybe his life is worth something after all.
Kind hearted and effervescent Zoey doesn't want to change the world, just to brighten the lives of her local guests, seeking a warm meal and a friendly ear. Travis is undeniably sexy, but his warm, sensitive side lured her in. Currently in a one sided, unfulfilled relationship, Zoey is torn between taking a chance and protecting herself from the likes of Travis. Travis is slowly falling for her, while his world is crumbling.
Things have never looked so bleak, when Travis is evicted, he moves heaven and earth to secure his mentally ill mother a bed at the women's homeless shelter. Living on his car, with no job, no future and eating from dumpsters, will he inevitably lose Zoey as well?
Girls Love Travis Walker begins where most typical, bad boy themed contemporary romances start... But that is where the similarities end. Travis isn't a bad boy, he loves women but wont allow himself to become attached, it's an escape, a chance to forget and experience a deluded form of love for those few moments.
He is only nineteen, but has the weight of the world on his shoulders, his mother being ill, two months behind on their rental payments, some days he can't afford to eat. But Zoey quickly becomes the bright spark in his life, and what begins as a fragile, intense friendship, soon turns into a tender love, something Travis has never felt before.
Well written, entertaining and tragically beautiful.
Girls Love Travis Walker
Written By Anne Pfeffer
Published 15 / 03 / 2013
323 Pages
Written By Anne Pfeffer
Published 15 / 03 / 2013
323 Pages
Purchase now from Amazon and Barnes And Noble
Anne Pfeffer lives in Los Angeles, California. She likes to write, walk her dog, play poker,and work as a library volunteer at a local school. Her book Any Other Night has been named a Finalist in both the 2012 Indie Reader Discovery Awards and the 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards.
You can visit Anne via Facebook Twitter Her Website and Goodreads
When Alley started her senior year at Upper East High in the South Hills area, it was supposed to be the usual drag of hanging out with people who spent more on one outfit than Alley did on her entire wardrobe. That was until Kirsten, a girl in their clique, suddenly goes missing and the only people who seem to care are her friends. All evidence leads to the new comer Shane, a cocky and self-pretentious person in Alley’s opinion, but the police seem uninterested so she and the rest of the girls start a little investigation of their own.
But they are nowhere closer to finding Kirsten than when they started and now they had the police’s attention; just not in the way they expected. The girls have to start over and discover that maybe it wasn’t an outsider who took Kirsten, but someone within their own clique who has something to hide; a secret that just might have gotten Kirsten killed.
Alley is starting her senior year of high school, at one if the most prestigious schools in her area. She attends with girls reminiscent of models, decked out in the latest designer threads, with luxury cars and credit cards to match. Alley isn't wealthy, she's the daughter of a single father who seems to work long and tiring hours, just to make ends meet.
Alley is one of the popular girls by association. Being friends with Val has had it's challenges, and her clique is one if them. Things suddenly become a while lot more entertaining at school, when popular girl Kirsten is feared missing. The last anyone had saw her, was whispering to new student Shane, in the hallway. Alley can feel she's being watched, the same SUV following her about town and parking outside of her house. But when she discovers Shane driving that very same SUV the next morning, conclusions are drawn. Clearly he took Kirsten, disposed of her and now Alley is his next victim... But the unlikely group of designer clad amateur investigators needs proof.
With a little surveillance and a whole lot of trouble, the girls follow the clues in a game of detective cat and mouse, but nothing prepared them for what they would discover what was really happening... Besides Alley's crush on the new boy.
Uninvited was hilarious. It's a young teen read that was incredibly entertaining. The character of Valerie was hysterical, she was a bumbling and accident prone sidekick, a little slow on the uptake, but with a endearing personality. Her detective skills, or lack thereof were brilliant. I absolutely adored her.
It's a light and fluffy comedy foremost, with the hint of romance. I loved it and it was just what I needed to breakaway from the heavy dystopian themed series I tend to gravitate towards and will definitely be continuing with the series.
The Uninvited
(South Hills Sidekicks: Book One)
Written By Leah Spiegal
Published 11 / 02/ 2012
302 Pages
Although we moved down to North Carolina several years ago, we’re originally from the Pittsburgh area. (That’s why a lot of our characters either live in the Burgh or reference our hometown football team, The Pittsburgh Steelers.) And yes, we even have the Southern accents to show for it now. Although Megan’s is considerable thicker, Leah still can’t understand the locals.
We are known as ‘the sisters’ among our neighborhood; when actually we’re probably really known as ‘the sisters with the Yorkies’. Our pups, Skippy Jon Jones and Captain Jack Sparrow, were given long names to compensate for their small size but not their large personalities.
If Leah’s not glued to her electronic devices, AKA her Kindle Fire and various laptops, you can find her training ‘the attack dogs’, running on the treadmill while conceiving the next great book idea with the Dave Matthews Band, Muse, Florence and the Machine, The Lumineers, and Pink (just to name a few) blaring out of her earphones.
If Megan’s not glued to her electronic devices AKA her iPad and Nook Color, you can find her teaching fourth graders, swimming marathon style at the pool, or cuddling with ‘the attack dogs’ as she watches Duck Dynasty, Gold Rush, Scandal, Person of Interest, Morning Joe, etc.
Leah graduated from Edinboro University with a BA in Art Education. Megan received her teaching degree from Edinboro University and Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Technology from Grand Canyon University.
You can reach the girls via Their Website Goodreads Facebook and Twitter
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