Cover Reveal: Gears of Brass - A Steampunk Anthology

Welcome the cover reveal for Gears of Grass - A Steampunk Anthology

Gear up for GEARS OF BRASS!  

Goodreads Summary

A world like ours, but filled with gears of brass, where the beating heart is fueled by steam and the simplest creation is a complex clockwork device. 

Within this tome, you’ll find steampunk fairy tale re-tellings, as well as original stories that will send your gears turning. 

Welcome to the steampunk realm, with eleven authors guiding your path. 

GEARS OF BRASS is a steampunk anthology published through Curiosity Quills. It will be available for purchase on November 10, 2014. Within the pages, you’ll come across clockwork inventions and steampunk-ified fairy tale retellings. Eleven authors will guide you through worlds filled with airships, top hats, and corsets.

Meet the authors:

Jordan Elizabeth writes young adult fantasy for Curiosity Quills, including ESCAPE FROM WITCHWOOD HOLLOW which was published in October and the upcoming TREASURE DARKLY; she’s represented by the Belcastro Agency.

J. Million is the author of Last of the Giants and can always be found reading or writing. 

Lorna MacDonald Czarnota is a professional storyteller and author of several books including, Medieval Tales That Kids Can Read and Tell, Breadline Blue, Legends Lore and Secrets of Western New York, Wicked Niagara, Native American and Pioneer Sites of Upstate New York, and Dancing at the Crossroads: Stories and Activities for At-Risk Youth Programming.

SA Larsen is represented by Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary and is the author of published short stories, community-interest stories, and magazine articles focused on children. 

Grant Eagar is an Engineer who would take the tales he told his children at bed time, and transform them into fantasy stories. 

Clare Weze is the author of The House of Ash (forthcoming) and the co-author and editor of Cloudscapes over the Lune.

Eliza Tilton: gamer, writer and lover of dark chocolate; author of the YA Fantasy, BROKEN FOREST, published by Curiosity Quills Press.

Heather Talty's stories have been featured in Enchanted Conversation, as well as her own fractured fairy tale site, Mythopoetical (www.Beatrixcottonpants.com).

W.K. Pomeroy is a third generation writer who has published more than 70 short stories/articles/poems across many genres and styles, which now includes Steampunk.

Christine Baker is the author of Lana's End, The Guild of Dagda, and many more. 

Natalia Darcy: a bookilicious reader, tea drinker and Zumba aficionado who enjoys playing cards against humanity and washing her hair with ice cold water. 

You can get your steampunk fix before GEARS OF BRASS is released in November.  To enter for your chance to win a copy of GEARS OF BRASS, you will need to share the cover.  This can be on your blog, Facebook, Twitter… Each time you share the cover image, log it into Rafflecopter to record it.  It will give you more chances to win.  The drawing for the winner will be held on October 27th. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Re-Read Review: Dreamfever (The Fever Series #4) by Karen Marie Moning

Published: August 18, 2009 Delacorte Press
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

Goodreads Summary

MacKayla Lane lies naked on the cold stone floor of a church, at the mercy of the erotic Fae master she once swore to kill. Far from home, unable to control her sexual hungers, MacKayla is now fully under the Lord Master’s spell.…In New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning’s stunning new novel, the walls between human and Fae worlds have come crashing down. And as Mac fights for survival on Dublin’s battle-scarred streets, she will embark on the darkest—and most erotically charged—adventure of her life.

He has stolen her past, but MacKayla will never allow her sister’s murderer to take her future. Yet even the uniquely gifted sidhe-seer is no match for the Lord Master, who has unleashed an insatiable sexual craving that consumes Mac’s every thought—and thrusts her into the seductive realm of two very dangerous men, both of whom she desires but dares not trust. 

As the enigmatic Jericho Barrons and the sensual Fae prince V’lane vie for her body and soul, as cryptic entries from her sister’s diary mysteriously appear and the power of the Dark Book weaves its annihilating path through the city, Mac’s greatest enemy delivers a final challenge.…

It’s an invitation Mac cannot refuse, one that sends her racing home to Georgia, where an even darker threat awaits. With her parents missing and the lives of her loved ones under siege, Mac is about to come face-to-face with a soul-shattering truth—about herself and her sister, about Jericho Barrons…and about the world she thought she knew.

"How much truth can you take, Ms. Lane?” 

The Good

After the end of Faefever, Mac is permanently altered. She's not herself at all in the beginning of the book and slowly comes back to herself. Only instead of Rainbow Mac, and Gray and Pink Mac, she is now Red and Black leather Mac. I appreciate that her transition in clothing catalogs the inner transitions that she's made as well. She is no longer naive. She's not the trusting, soft girl that anyone can knock over. She doesn't trust anyone anymore. She is on the scene now with guns blazing and everyone else better get out of the way.

I relish the different settings that I got to see in Dreamfever. I got to read about this new Dublin with the walls all the way down between the fae, as well as a trip into the Silvers into the Fae world. The environment was so different that it infused some umph into the storyline and kept the action well-paced.

The characters are simply amazing. Barrons is a hard tough shell, and seeing the funny side of him briefly in this one was brilliant. Christian pops up again with his lovely Scottish excellence. Dani saves Mac and is a hero. She's adorable when she's preening knowing she's done a job well done. V'lane is as mystifying as ever though Mac is no longer in thrall when he's around. Thank you, Moning! I love her strength etched up to this notch. Rowena sickens me. I love that this old, frail woman is actually one of the meanest and revolting characters that surrounds her.

The Bad

I lacked interest in the beginning chapters that were told from Dani's POV. They were hard for me to get into. Her voice is so different from Mac's and quite honestly hard for me to appreciate. She tends to repeat the same words over and over again. Dani is a character in this series that I adore, but I think I must love her more through Mac's POV because I skipped over the little sections that were her's in this one.

The Romance

Finally some action in the romance front! Steamy, hot, unrefined romance. Is she falling for the right person?

Conclusion

An absolutely thrilling way for this story to unfold. Mac is being honed into a steel edge through her trials and growing into a character that I can definitely stand behind. Barrons is as cantankerous as ever and I relish every saracastic exchange he and Mac share. The action is here in spades along with strange new landscapes. Recommended.

Excerpts

"Hope strengthens. Fear kills. It's how you go on that defines you."

“You're leaving me, Rainbow Girl.” 

“I have a black sense of humor. You try living my life, see what color yours turns.” 

“So how did he look at me?"
"Like it was his birthday and you were the cake.” 

Sunday Cover Scramble [87]

Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until I'm posting the next one to let you know if you are right, allowing others to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. Let me know in the comments if you'd like some more hints and I'll offer some more if no one guesses it correctly.


I'm changing up the format a little bit! I am going to be pulling covers off the Most Popular Page on Goodreads.

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Sidekick Showcase [90] - Strong Woman

Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for October: This is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month so in that frame of mind, I would love to celebrate strong women

My choice is Jill Mastrano

The Bloodlines Series by Richelle Mead

Why Jill? I'm choosing her because she's a young teen girl that's so emotionally strong. Her whole world is turned on its head. She goes from this fan-girl, fast talking, let's all have fun to all of a sudden having to face consequences of an event that she literally had no choice in...being born. Stripped away from her family, she's living in almost isolation with very few others all for simply existing. Does this tear her down? No. Does dying and being brought to life tear her down? No. She deals with the consequences of that as well...another event she had no choice in. Now she's got a spirit bond that she can do nothing about. This bond cannot be easy to handle, having to 'feel' someone's deepest and darkest depressions along with your own young teen emotions has to be debilitating. I absolutely adore her attitude and easy-going, non-whiny way of handling all this.

Quotes:

“Any life worth living is going to have risks”

---

“She’s not just any Moroi. She’s royal. A princess. And you’ve seen how she is! Smart and strong and beautiful. She’s destined for great things, and one of them isn’t being involved with a controversial guardian like me. Her bloodline’s regal.Hell, I don’t even know who my dad is. Dating her is not even possible. My job is to protect her. To keep her safe. That’s where all my attention needs to be.”

---

“Sydney, don't leave Adrian because of me."
"It's more complicated than that," I said automatically.
"It's really not," she said. "From everything I've seen and heard, you're just afraid. You've always controlled every detail of your life. When you couldn't-like with the Alchemists-you found a way to seize back that control."
"There is nothing wrong with wanting control," I snapped.
"Except that we can't always have it, and sometimes that is a good thing. A great thing, even," she added. "And that's how it is with Adrian. No matter how hard you try, you aren't going to be able to control your feelings for him. You can't help loving him, and so you're running away. I'm just an excuse.”

---

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Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Published: April 22, 2014 by Broadway Books
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Source: Purchased

Goodreads Summary

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

“It was my fifth lie to the police and I was just getting started”

This book is the story of Nick and Amy Dunne.  Amy disappears on their 5th wedding anniversary under some suspicious circumstances.  It’s the kind of disappearance that becomes a media sensation.  Nick is suspect #1 in the eyes of the public and the police. Did he really have something to do with her disappearance or does she have enemies not even her husband knows about?

Media Frenzies = Entertaining

A friend of mine highly recommended this book to me.   It was a story we all know well….  Wife ends up missing, the husband must have done it.    As I was reading this story a very familiar story came to my mind, the Lacy and Scott Peterson story.   But Scott Peterson, Nick is not.   The story is told from Nick and Amy’s POV.  Amy’s is told through diary entries.   The dual perspective gives you a rounded view of the marriage from both sides, not just one.   I loved the chapters of Amy’s diary.  She was very funny and I could relate to a lot of her story.   When telling her meeting of Nick, she talks about being 32 and single.  With lines like, “I know I am not right to settle, but it doesn’t make me feel better as my friends pair off and I stay home on Friday night with a bottle of wine and make myself an extravagant meal and tell myself, 'This is perfect as if I am the one dating me.'” Exactly Amy, exactly. Once I got into the book, I had a HARD time putting it down. It was like I had a 2000 piece puzzle and I wasn’t sure if all the pieces were from the same puzzle or several different puzzles.  All logic pieces point to Nick but you knew there was just something that was missing.  Not all the pieces fit.  Their marriage was one I am sure a lot of people could relate too.  Five years in the ups and downs of all the things life can throw at you can turn a happy marriage to an unhappy marriage.   So it is something that I feel a lot of people can be like 'yep, I get it'.   The plot being so familiar but yet so different was a good take on an old fashion story.   There is a lot of love there from this chick.

“One should never marry a man who doesn’t own a decent pair of scissors.  That would be my advice.  It leads to bad things”

It looks bad for Nick VERY bad

I will say I LOVED the middle.  The beginning and ending not so much .  The beginning was awful and very slow.  It picked up, became AMAZING, then the author dropped the ball,  and I HATED HATED HATED the awful ending.  It was almost like Gillian gave up or ran out of ideas.   I hated BOTH the main characters by the end of the book.  I had zero love for any of them.   She did all this build up.  She had these great multi-dimensional characters, this great story, and she just killed it.  My personal advice skip the first and the ending.  Just read the middle and make up your own ending.  You will be happier that way!    I was told the movie coming out did have a different ending of the book. Thank God!  Maybe they took the time to get that one right.

“Act correctly, don’t blow it, act the way a man acts when he hears this news”

Final thoughts about this confusing mess

I feel iffy.  In some ways it’s amazing, and in some ways it was awful.   Overall, I liked it once I got into it.  I stayed up all night to finish it.  It has been a while since I stayed up all night to read a book.  Once I got to the end I was almost mad I stayed up for that conclusion.  But the parts I liked did make up for it.

Get Gone Girl: A Novel from Amazon

When life's kicking your butt...how about a theme song? [10]

My friend Robyn from robgirlbooks tasked us with coming up with a theme song each month, and I love it! Music is a VERY big part of my life. Jennifer @ Donnie Darko Girl inspired this month's theme song challenge because the girl absolutely loves the Austin City Limits Music Festival. So check out the list and go nuts!

Also, this month is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I hope you all know what you're worth!

I chose two this month:

What are your choices this month??

Review: Hunt for the Star (The Eldon Archives #1) by Dane Richter

Published: February 16th 2013
Genre: Fantasy
Format: ebook
Source: provided for honest review

Goodreads Summary

Edoria is at war. Artos Hestrom retreats back to his home town of Corsin where he is given the task of retrieving a powerful crystal called the Eldon Star. The ageing Artos uses lies and deceit to procure people to help him on the journey and the plight of a half-man, half-elf called Chet, provides the perfect cover. Artos' nephew, Ethan, freely volunteers to accompany him without knowing his true motives, but Ethan's death has been foreseen in a vision. Knowing that Ethan would certainly die if he continues on the journey, Artos must choose between the fate of his family and the fate of the world.

Standing in his way is the evil Sorcerer, Ruehl, who has waged war in Edoria with his blood-thirsty hordes of Kròkos. Ruehl uses his minions to relentlessly scour the land for the crystal. Betrayals, challenges and loss set up a final confrontation with the evil Sorcerer where there can be only one victor.

"'Reassuring? People are dead and you worry about how the town will react? I can't believe you just said that!' Ethan spat, raising his voice to a threatening level, and at the same time hardly believing he had taken that tone with his father."

The Good

I really had an easy time getting into this book. It had a familiar feel to it in that it felt like a Forgotten realm book even though it has nothing to do with Forgotten Realms. Not only did I enjoy the time focused on the main character but I also considered the time spent developing the supporting characters to be just as entertaining. Like most Fantasy Parties they end up having to split up into at least two groups, and I can honestly say I never found myself just wanting to get back to one particular group. The fights are bloody and the creatures are great. I really like the Shenaar (snakepeople).

The Bad

I don't really have any complaints. This really was a solid fantasy novel. I know that sounds like i should maybe rank it higher with that being the case but this feels right.

The Romance

There is no romance worth mentioning in this installment but, I do believe ground work has been set for romance in the next book.

Conclusion

Overall this was a really fun Fantasy novel. If you enjoy Forgotten realm novels, you'll enjoy this one. The characters are great, the fights are action packed and the monsters are plentiful. I'll definitely be ready for book 2 when it comes out.

Excerpts

Artos nodded and looked to the Oocha. 'Ko-jah, old friend, I was looking forward to your visit and showing you my lands as you once showed me yours. But, as it turns out, foes have extended their reach upon our homes and we must protect them.'
'Oocha's prefer a fight rather than looking at countryside. I will kill people for you.
'That is all I ask,' said Artos. 'But don't kill anyone unless I tell you to.


Ethan bit his lip,'I was told yesterday that this was a dangerous place, but no one else heard it, so I didn't give it any more thought.' He looked down at his damaged hand. He could feel the judging eyes upon him,' and then I heard it again, just now, saying I told you so.'


'Your new name is Mac!' The horse bent its ears back in defiance. Artos stopped smiling. 'I don't care if you don't like it. I like it, and that's all that matters, Mac!'He kicked the horse but the horse would not move. 'When I get to Fohinx I'm gonna ride you straight into a cloud of Krokos arrows.'The horse reluctantly trotted forward. 'I knew you were a smart horse, Mac.'