Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.
Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.
But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret—one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.
Pondering
Purchasing is a meme that myself and my mum (from JeanzBookReadNReview) have created which was inspired by
Waiting On Wednesday at Breaking The Spine, and Future Favourites at
Electrifying Reviews.
In this meme we
will feature three books per post, one “Old” release, one “Recent” release, and
finally one “Future” release.
Please note:
Even though we may feature a book in Pondering Purchases, it does not
necessarily mean that we will ACTUALLY purchase that book immediately, if at
all. It just means that that book is on our “Wishlist” at that time.
When Phoebe's mom returns from Greece with a new husband and plans to move to an island in the Aegean Sea, Phoebe's well-plotted senior year becomes ancient history. Now, instead of enjoying a triumphant track season and planning for college with her best friends, Phoebe is trying to keep her head above water at the überexclusive Academy. If it isn't hard enough being the new kid in school, Phoebe's classmates are all descendants of the Greek gods! When you're running against teammates with superpowers, dealing with a stepsister from Hades, and nursing a crush on a boy who is quite literally a god, the drama takes on mythic proportions!
I am Pondering Purchasing Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs because I have read both Forgive My Fins & Fins Are Forever, (which are also by Tera Lynn Childs), and I not only enjoyed reading them because of their amazing plots but also because I liked her writing style.
She obediently takes her meds and stays under the radar at school. After "the incident," Olive just wants to avoid any more trouble, so she knows the smartest thing is to stay clear of the new girl who is rumored to have quite the creepy past. But there’s no avoiding Miranda Vaile. As mousy Miranda edges her way into the popular group, right up to the side of queen bee Katie – and pushes the others right out – only Olive seems to notice that something strange is going on. Something almost . . . parasitic. Either Olive is losing her grip on reality, or Miranda Vaile is stealing Katie’s life.
But who would ever believe crazy Olive, the girl who has a habit of letting her imagination run away with her? And what if Olive is the next target?
I am Pondering Purchasing Shift by Em Bailey mainly because of the cover. It was the cover that first attracted my attention due to its uniqueness. I am also Pondering Purchasing Shift, because it reminds me a bit of Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson (because it seems to be bordering on the line between YA Lit & YA Paranormal).
Alex and Lila are on the run, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the Unit, which somehow is managing to track their every move. Whilst Alex is determined to keep Lila safe and her ability secret at any cost, Lila’s only thought is of finding a way back to California so that she can rescue her brother and mother from the military base where they’re being held.
Struggling to control both her growing power and her deepening feelings for Alex, Lila decides the time has finally come to stop running and start fighting. Together with Alex, Demos, and the people she’s come to think of as family, Lila plans not just to save her brother and mother, but to completely destroy the Unit and everything it stands for.
But the plan requires Lila to return alone to California, make friends with the enemy, and to risk losing everything - Alex, her family, and even her life.
I am Pondering Purchasing Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson because I have read the previous book in the Lila series, and I absolutely loved it! It was the perfect mix of YA & Paranormal without being over the top or too cliche.
Daniel Waters has written Generation Dead, Kiss Of Life, Passing Strange and Break My Heart 1,000 Times.
1. What is your name and where do you call home? Daniel Waters, and I live in Connecticut
2. Do you have a pen name? Not at the moment
3. What is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what would you say? Break My Heart 1000 Times. Scary.
4. Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series? Always. Quite possibly.
5. What or who inspired you to start writing? And how long have you been writing? No one person; i've been writing since I was a little kid.
6. Do you gift books to readers for book reviews? My publisher sometimes does.
7. How did you come up with the cover? Who designed the cover of your book? Disney-Hyperion has designed the covers for the U.S. books and S&S UK have done the UK editions and all are lovely.
8. Which is your favourite cover of all the books you have written? I really like the cover for My ebook Stitches, by the first U.S. cover of Generation Dead remains a favorite.
9. Is there anything you would change about your book covers? I'd love it if we could stamp "Over 1 million sold!" on them at some point.
10. Would you have different book covers for different countries? I do, and I love having different covers. Any art inspired by my writing is a treasure to me.
11. How did you come up with the title for your book? They appear magically in the writing process.
12. Is there anything you would change about your book? And why? Other than typographical errors I wouldn't change a thing. Oh and somehow the acknowledgements disappeared from Passing Strange; I'd love to put those back.
13. Do you have a book trailer? And what are your thoughts on book trailers? There was a book trailer done for my second novel Kiss of Life. I love them.
14. Do you prefer e-books, paperbacks, hardcovers or audiobooks? I like 'em all.
15. Are you a self-published / Indie author? I self-published a novel ages ago. But since Generation Dead I'm not.
16. Have you ever read a book more than once? And if so what was it? Many, many times. I read all of Salinger every couple years, certain Stephen King novels, Shirley Jackson, a number of science fiction novels, Hemingway, Infinite Jest...
17. Have you ever bought a specific edition of a book because of it’s cover? (For example a UK, US or Canadian version) Yes, and yes. I am a bit fetishistic about books. I've definitely got an obsession for vintage paperbacks and oddball releases of books I like. I'm a sucker for limited editions, too, especially if illustrations were added.
18. Have you ever read a book just based on it’s cover? Yep. Unabashedly so.
19. Has the quality of the cover of a book ever put you off of reading it? Yes. I can be very shallow.
20. What book are you reading at the moment? And in what format? I'm reading a trade paperback of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys
21. Do you have any advice for other writers? And what’s the best advice that you have been given when it comes to writing? Understand that not all criticism is good or even well-intentioned. Learn how to take a punch, and how not to return one.
The Duchess Of The Shallows By Neil McGarry & Daniel Ravipinto
A game is played in the fog-shrouded city of Rodaas, and every citizen, from the nameless of the Shallows to the noblest of the Garden, is a player or a pawn. And no one is as he appears.
Not Minette, brothel-keeper and obsessive collector of secrets. Not Uncle Cornelius, fearsome chief of the gang of brutes and murderers known as the Red. Not the cults of Death, Wisdom, and Illumination, eternally scheming and plotting along the Godswalk.
And certainly not the orphaned bread girl known as Duchess.
Yet armed with nothing more than her wits, her good friend Lysander and a brass mark of dubious origin Duchess will dare to play that game for the most coveted of prizes: initiation into a secret society of thieves, spies and rumormongers who stand supreme in a city where corruption and lies are common coin.
Neil McGarry & Daniel Ravipinto have written The Duchess Of The Shallows.
1. What is your name and where do you call
home?
We're Neil McGarry and Dan Ravipinto and we
currently reside in Philadelphia.
2. What is the name of your most recent
book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what would you say?
Our most recent book - the first we've
written together - is entitled "The Duchess of the Shallows". It's
about a young woman who is invited to join a secret society of spies and
rumormongers known as the Grey.
3. Do you have plans for a new book? Is
this book part of a series?
Yes to both! We're currently hard at work
on the sequel to Duchess, entitled The Fall of Ventaris.
4. What or who inspired you to start
writing? And how long have you been writing?
Actually, a game inspired us to write
Duchess' adventures. She started as a character in a role-playing game and as
we went along, we became more and more interested in her and the world she
inhabited: the fog-shrouded, rumor-haunted city of Rodaas.
The stories we told through the game
eventually led us to the tales that we tell in the novels. Both of us have been
writing and telling stories since we were small, so it was a natural
progression.
5. How did you come up with the cover? Who
designed the cover of your book?
The cover was designed by the amazingly
talented Amy Houser, who's both an artist and a toy designer. We approached her
with the idea of doing a cover and she came up with the great image of Duchess
and the "P" coin - the part of the plot that kicks off Duchess'
interactions with the Grey - standing with the city rising from the fog behind
her. She also drew a beautiful city map for the inside of the book.
6. Is there anything you would change about
your book covers?
Amy actually submitted four initial
sketches for the covers and we wish we could have used them all!
7. How did you come up with the title for
your book?
All of the books in the series have a
double meaning. The Duchess of the Shallows is our main character - her name is
Duchess and the area of the city she lives in is known as "The
Shallows" - but more importantly, it describes the position she aspires
to: something of a minor powerbroker amongst the city's lowest.
8. Is there anything you would change
about your book? And why?
You can always look back at what you've
done and see the shortcomings. We could have endlessly tinkered and changed and
revised, but there comes a point where you have to call your work done and move
on. Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good.
9. Do you have a book trailer? And what
are your thoughts on book trailers?
We don't have a trailer, but we DO have a
dorky introductory video to the books and ourselves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nplNpBLi8ew).
As with any promotional material, the value of book trailers lies in letting
readers understand what they're in for and how the story feels.
10. Do you prefer e-books, paperbacks,
hardcovers or audiobooks?
Neil: Dan has long read e-books, but I'm a
recent convert. But I'm making up for lost time!
11. Are you a self-published / Indie
author?
We are. We did all of the editing and
layout ourselves, and reached out to Amy Houser to help us with the cover. Both
of us are really excited about the technology that's made self-publishing
possible. Only a few years ago, what we're doing - the sheer number of people
we're able to reach - would've been impossible.
12. Have you ever read a book more than
once? And if so what was it?
Dozens between us.
Neil: Watership Down. Many, many times.
Dan: I've re-read and enjoyed R.A.
MacAvoy's books (Damiano, Tea with the Black Dragon, etc) since I was a child.
More recently, it seems I pick up and re-read David Foster Wallace's Infinite
Jest every couple of years.
13. Have you ever read a book just based on
its cover?
Neil: I bought George R.R. Martin's
"Game of Thrones" based solely on the back-cover blurb.
Dan: I ended up reading L.E. Modesitt, Jr's
"Of Tangible Ghosts" just because I found the cover image so
intriguing.
14. What book are you reading at the
moment? And in what format?
Neil: I'm currently reading Jenna Moran's
"Fable of the Swan" in Kindle format.
Dan: I just finished Lev Grossman's
"The Magicians" in paperback.
15. Do you have any advice for other
writers? And what’s the best advice that you have been given when it comes to
writing?
Neil: My advice to other writers: Never
think that writing isn't hard work.
Dan: One of the best pieces of advice I
ever got was from my friend Dave, back in college. I had a tendency to try to
cram all of my world-building into my stories right up front. Dave told me to think
of my world as a beach that my reader had to walk across. All I needed to
describe was the sand beneath their feet.
Elysandra Winters has always yearned for a life of adventure on the rolling seas and is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill her dream. When her Privateer father continually refuses to allow his only daughter to sail, Ellie defies him, disguises herself as a boy, and goes in search of a captain who will give her a chance to prove her worth.
Thanks to the cursed selkie blood coursing through his veins, Daniel O'Rourke needs the sea to survive. After giving up on his humanity and spending three years in seal form, he decides to give his human side another chance. Daniel goes in search of a job and a sense of normalcy, earning himself a position aboard Captain Winter’s ship, The Siren's Call. However, his new captain’s first assignment has nothing at all to do with sailing, and everything to do with his headstrong young daughter.
Years later, when the leader of a band of bloodthirsty pirates murders Captain Winters, Daniel and Elysandra’s lives come crashing back together with the force of a hurricane. Both experts in deception, they must find a way to trust each other if they are to have any hope of hunting down the captain’s killer.
My real,
legal name is Rebecca Hart, but my maiden name is Brennan. I was born and
raised in the Albany area of Upstate, NY.
2. What
is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less
words, what would you say?
Call of
the Sea -- A rousing high seas adventure featuring pirates, sea battles and
selkies, and peppered with a dash of romance.
3. Do
you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series?
Call of
the Sea was meant to be a stand alone novel, but I’ve had quite a few requests
for a sequel from beta readers, so I may just need to check in with Ellie and
Daniel again. For now, my sights are set on finishing the first book in a
fantasy series I have been working on.
4. What
or who inspired you to start writing? And how long have you been writing?
I first
started writing seriously after taking a Creative Writing Workshop at the local
community college. I absolutely loved it and got an A in the class. That was the
first time I really thought I might have something to offer to a reader. I’ve
been submitting stories for publication for a little over a year now.
5. How
did you come up with the cover? Who designed the cover of your book?
I had a
mental image of the cover when I wrote the book, but the cover was designed by
Inkspell’s Cover Designer, Najla Qamber (http://najlaqamberdesigns.blogspot.com/
) She does amazing work, and actually when I got the first cover mock-up, it
was so close to what I had envisioned, I was stunned. The cover is just perfect
for the story.
6. Which
is your favourite cover of all the books you have written?
Call of
the Sea is a debut novel, so my first cover -- making it easily my favorite. Of
course, I am addicted to pirates and tall ships, so the fact that it also has a
ship on the cover would probably make it a favorite even if I had 10 novels
published already.
7. How
did you come up with the title for your book?
The original
“working” title of the novel was The Pirate and the Selkie, Aside from being
rather bland, I realized while writing the story, there was a common thread
with the two main characters and that was their tie to the sea - albeit for
different reasons. Call of the Sea suited both main characters, and ended up
being just the right name. Also, Captain Winter’s ship is called The Siren’s
Call, giving Call of the Sea an additional meaning. Fate, right?
8. Is
there anything you would change about your book? And why?
I had a
friend from the UK mention some small inaccuracies in the story from a
historical and English perspective that will always niggle at me, now that I’ve
been made aware of them. Things like that always make me cringe because they
aren’t necessarily things you’ll be able to find in research material when
you’re writing. The history expects, and those actually from the country you
set your novels in will get you every time, though.
9. Do
you have a book trailer? And what are your thoughts on book trailers?
I
thought about creating one for Call of the Sea, but I really wondered what sort
of value that would have for a book. For movies, they make sense… I’m not sure
if I think it really benefits a book or author to have one. That being said, this
is my first novel, so maybe I missed the boat on that one.
10. Do
you prefer e-books, paperbacks, hardcovers or audiobooks?
I love
the convenience and portability of eBooks, but nothing replaces having a hold
in your hand paperback, especially for books I really loved. I never want to be
at the complete mercy of technology for my books. If my Nook or Kindle breaks,
then what? I have to replace it or no more books. The only way I lose my
paperback books is if I sell them or my house burns down.
11. Have
you ever read a book more than once? And if so what was it?
I have a
few I’ve read multiple times, though it is usually years between readings. Two
I can think of off the top of my head are Pirate Royale by Cordia Byers and
Love Ever After by Patricia Rice (yes, I’m a somewhat reformed historical
romance addict)
12. Have
you ever read a book just based on it’s cover?
Absolutely,
I do it all the time. While I do read the back blurb, I’ve bought books that
didn’t totally grab me with the back of the book purely because the cover
rocked.
13. Has
the quality of the cover of a book ever put you off of reading it?
Not as
often as I’ve selected books to read based on the cover, but there have been
some I’ve thought just had to be bad because the cover was just complete bleck.
