KEEPER OF THE BEES by Meg Kassel Blog Tour, Giveaway, and Review!

Keeper of the Bees
By Meg Kassel
Genre: YA Paranormal
Release Date: September 4th 2018
Entangled Teen

Summary:

“Beauty and the beast like you’ve never imagined!” —New York Times bestselling author Pintip Dunn

KEEPER OF THE BEES is a tale of two teens who are both beautiful and beastly, and whose pasts are entangled in surprising and heartbreaking ways.
Dresden is cursed. His chest houses a hive of bees that he can’t stop from stinging people with psychosis-inducing venom. His face is a shifting montage of all the people who have died because of those stings. And he has been this way for centuries—since he was eighteen and magic flowed through his homeland, corrupting its people.

He follows harbingers of death, so at least his curse only affects those about to die anyway. But when he arrives in a Midwest town marked for death, he encounters Essie, a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from debilitating delusions and hallucinations. His bees want to sting her on sight. But Essie doesn’t see a monster when she looks at Dresden.

Essie is fascinated and delighted by his changing features. Risking his own life, he holds back his bees and spares her. What starts out as a simple act of mercy ends up unraveling Dresden’s solitary life and Essie’s tormented one. Their impossible romance might even be powerful enough to unravel a centuries-old curse.

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Purchase Link: https://entangledpublishing.com/keeper-of-the-bees.html

PROJECT PROMETHEUS by Aden Polydoros blog tour!

Project Prometheus (Assassin Fall #2)
by Aden Polydoros
Genre: YA Thriller
Release Date: August 28th 2018
Entangled Teen

Summary:

The Academy stole everything from Hades, their perfect assassin. Angry and leaving bodies in his wake, he finds two other ex-assassins doing the exact same thing.

Tyler and Shannon once killed for The Academy. Now they’re tracking and hunting down its scientists. So why is The Academy only after Hades?

Shannon will do whatever it takes to protect Tyler, even if it means teaming up with a former rival. While she seeks answers to her past, Tyler wants to learn the truth about the mysterious white room, which no one has ever seen except him.

As for Hades? He simply wants revenge.

They all need answers, even if it means returning to the organization where it all started.

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Purchase Links: https://entangledpublishing.com/project-prometheus.html

Book One:
Project Pandora (Assassin Fall #1) by Aden Polydoros
Release Date: August 1st 2017

Summary:

Tyler Bennett trusts no one. Just another foster kid bounced from home to home, he’s learned that lesson the hard way. Cue world’s tiniest violin. But when strange things start happening—waking up with bloody knuckles and no memory of the night before or the burner phone he can’t let out of his sight— Tyler starts to wonder if he can even trust himself.

Even stranger, the girl he’s falling for has a burner phone just like his. Finding out what’s really happening only leads to more questions…questions that could get them both killed. It’s not like someone’s kidnapping teens lost in the system and brainwashing them to be assassins or anything, right? And what happens to rogue assets who defy control?

In a race against the clock, they’ll have to uncover the truth behind Project Pandora and take it down—before they’re reactivated. Good thing the program spent millions training them to kick ass...

Project Pandora (Assassin Fall #1) on Goodreads

About the Author
Aden Polydoros grew up in Long Grove, Illinois, and now lives in Arizona. He is a writer of young adult fiction. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys reading and going on hikes in the mountains. Aden Polydoros is a 2015 Gold Medalist in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has published two short stories in Best Arizona Teen Writing of 2015. PROJECT PANDORA (Entangled, 2017) is his debut novel.

Author Links:
Goodreads│Twitter 

GIVEAWAY:
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Blog Tour Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours

SEVENTH BORN by Monica Sanz Review + Blog Tour Stop!

Seventh Born
by Monica Sanz
Genre: YA Paranormal/Mystery & Suspense
Release Date: September 4th 2018
Entangled Teen

Summary:

Abomination. Curse. Murderer. All names hurled at eighteen-year-old Seraphina Dovetail. As the seventh-born daughter to a witch, she’s the cause of her mother losing her powers and, in turn, her life.

Abandoned as a child, Sera dreams of becoming an inspector and finding her family. To do that, she must be referred into the Advanced Studies Program at the Aetherium’s Witchling Academy. Her birth order, quick temper, and tendency to set things on fire, however, have left her an outcast with failing marks…and just what Professor Nikolai Barrington is looking for.

The tall, brooding, yet exceedingly handsome young professor makes her a proposition: become his assistant and he’ll give her the referral she needs. Sera is quickly thrust into a world where witches are being kidnapped, bodies are raised from the dead, and someone is burning seventhborns alive. As Sera and Barrington grow ever closer, she’ll discover that some secrets are best left buried…and fire isn’t the only thing that makes a witch burn.

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Purchase links can be found HERE!

My Rating: A+
My thoughts on the book:
Witch books are usually hit or miss with me, but I absolutely loved Seventh Born. I stayed up half the night reading the book, and I was so glad when I checked online and found out it is part of a series because I am not ready to say goodbye to these characters or this world yet. Sure, there are tons of books out there about ostracized witches and outcasts and betrayal, etc., etc. This book stands out, though... it has feeling. On top of that, it has a murder mystery that is actually well done! Add that to well-developed characters and top of the line world-building, and you have Seventh Born. This novel completely captivated me.

The heroine, Seraphina Dovetail (her friends call her Sera), can't remember her past. On top of that, she has PTSD from the past that she can remember, which results in her having issues controlling her magic if she feels threatened or has a flashback, so she kind of sets a lot of things on fire. Her PTSD reactions are really spot-on, though. I know that everyone handles things differently and PTSD presents itself differently in everyone, like all illnesses, but it was easy to believe that Sera has PTSD. It's not diagnosed as such in the book (I think this was set in the Victorian era... or a similar equivalent for the world Sera and co. live in), but it's pretty obvious. Sera is a wonderful leading lady, and so empathetic, even though she has walls up and trusts no one. It's clear she is a good person from the beginning. In addition to Sera, we have a full cast of well-developed secondary characters, including her best friend Mary, the popular boy Timothy, and Professor Barrington. None of these characters are what you'd expect, though. There are no cookie cutter or filler characters in these novels. I felt like I got to know everyone Sera interacted with, at least as well as she knew them, and that is a rare find.

The world building in this novel was fantastic. I could clearly picture the world that Sera lived in, and I understood the rules of the world. That's always difficult to do in a fantasy style novel. There were no info dumps, though. Everything was paced out nicely. Sanz wrote beautifully, too. I absolutely loved a lot of the lines in the book. The plot was complex, and the "big reveal" actually surprised me, and that doesn't happen often. It was still believable, though. While we found out around the middle of the book who was doing the killings, we get a nice big betrayal at the end that I didn't see coming at all. The ending tied this book up nicely and leaves room for a sequel.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy/paranormal novels that are set in alternate realities/historic type worlds with strong leading ladies and wonderful writing. Give this book a try. You won't be sorry.

MORGAN IS MISSING by K. Hanson Blog Tour!

Morgan is Missing (Kayla Falk Series #2)
by K. Hanson
Genre: Adult/New Adult Thriller
Release Date: August 2018

Summary:

Kayla Falk is trying to move past the traumatic events of her mission in Syria and settle into a comfortable engineering job. However, when Morgan Bellamy, the younger sister of Kayla’s late best friend, disappears while on vacation, Kayla doesn’t hesitate to jump into action to find her. As Kayla investigates, she learns that Morgan has become trapped in a hellish human trafficking situation. Kayla is determined to find Morgan before she slips into the shadows forever.


Content Warning: This book is about sex trafficking. While I avoid explicit, graphic depictions of sexual violence, due to the nature of the subject matter, it is definitely implied that it takes place.

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Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D5JT6WL/

The Azrael Initiative (Kayla Falk Series #1) on Goodreads
Buy The Azrael Initiative on Amazon

RENEGADE by Mallory McCartney Release Day Blitz!

I am so excited that RENEGADE by Mallory McCartney is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Mallory McCartney, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a copy of the eBook courtesy of Mallory and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Title: RENEGADE (Black Dawn 0.5)

Author: Mallory McCartney

Pub. Date: July 3, 2018

Publisher: Clean Reads Publishing

Formats: eBook

Pages: 250

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon

“The time for Kiero’s reign in prosperity is over.”

Six years before the Black Dawn Rebellion, Adair Stratton and Emory Fae are following in their parent’s footsteps and living at The Academy, a home for those who are gifted.  The pressure to uphold the future of their parent’s dream falls on them. An outcast and feared by most, Adair longs to break away from the expectations dictating his future. Even if Emory tries to make him see differently. An unexpected group of friends keep him there, but as whispers of unexplained disappearances start reaching from the capital, Adair starts to doubt The Academy is all it seems.

An unexpected visit ignites new tensions as the roguish king from across the Black Sea, Tadeas Maher of the Shattered Isles, and his heir, Marquis Maher sail to Kiero. Notorious for their pirating and wrath- for the first time in years, they demand the Fae’s listen to their proposition for a new treaty, holding the news of Nei’s father’s abrupt death over them. Caught in the middle of politics- Adair and Emory, with the help of their best friends Brokk and Memphis search for the one thing that matters most- finding out the truth.

In this gripping prequel to Black Dawn, their world is tipped upside down as unlikely alliances are made. War ravages through Kiero and is torn apart by acclaimed Kings. Through the throes of betrayal, lies, hidden magic and love, Adair is faced with a life changing decision- to fight or to bow to the darkness within him.

Title: BLACK DAWN (Black Dawn #1)

Author: Mallory McCartney

Release Date: February 14, 2017

Publisher: Clean Reads Publishing

Pages: 352

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Find it: Amazon, B&N, Goodreads

Emory Fae enjoys leading a quiet, normal life. That is until two mysterious, and handsome soldiers show up at her apartment, and the life she knew is instantly whisked away. Memphis Carter and Brokk Foster come from the magical and war ridden world of Kiero, and bringing Emory back she will discover she is the long lost heir to the Royal Line and is thrown into the Black Dawn Rebellion with a dynamic role to ignite the rebels and reclaim her throne.

With both men being darkly woven in her past Emory uncovers hidden secrets, a power held long dormant, and will soon realize there are worse things than supernatural humans, love, loss, betrayal, and a Mad King.

Some things are better left in the shadows.

Exclusive Excerpt!

Exhaling, the prince took him off guard as he lifted his eyebrow. “What I don’t understand is how the Faes have achieved such loyalty. What did they do?”

He chewed his bottom lip as he hopped over a fallen tree trunk. He looked to Marquis. “They were the dreamers in a time when culture, creativity, and equality were being butchered. The Academy was the foundation of that dream, for desolates, for the people with weaker abilities. For everyone. The people of Kiero followed Roque because they can’t fear him, they can only admire him. How brave he was for standing up to his father, for breaking free of his reign to start his own.”

Marquis chewed his lip. “It sounds like you have a different opinion of him.”

He threw out his hands. “I was born at the Academy. Raised in the Academy. Who am I to doubt the intentions of the Faes? They are practically family.”

Shrugging, Marquis cooed, “Sometimes it is the ones closest to us that betray us first.”

About Mallory:

Mallory McCartney currently lives in Sarnia, Ontario with her husband and their three dachshunds Link, Lola and Leonard. When she isn’t working on her next novel or reading, she can be found day dreaming about fantasy worlds and hiking. Other favorite pastimes involve reorganizing perpetually overflowing bookshelves and seeking out new coffee and dessert shops.

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Giveaway Details:

One lucky winner will receive an eBook of RENEGADE, International.

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Sunday E-Book Deals!

The Thousandth Floor 
By: Katharine McGee
E-Reader Price: $1.99
Synopsis:
NEW YORK CITY AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE.

A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you're this high up, there's nowhere to go but down....

Read my review here

Buy Links:
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Shadow and Bone
By: Leigh Bardugo
E-Reader Price: $2.99
Synopsis:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.


Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

Buy Links:
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Seige and Storm
By: Leigh Bardugo
E-Reader Price: $2.99
Synopsis:
Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.


The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Buy Links:
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Ruin and Rising
By: Leigh Bardugo
E-Reader Price: $2.99
Synopsis:
The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.


Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Buy Links:
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Bayou Born
By: Hailey Edwards
E-Reader Price: $1.99
Synopsis:
Her beginning may be our end...

Deep in the humid swamps of the Mississippi bayou, a mysterious, half-wild child is dragged just in time from the murky waters. She has no memories, no family and is covered in strange markings, the meaning of which no one is able to decipher. Adopted by the policeman who rescued her, Luce Boudrou follows him into the force, determined to prove herself in the eyes of those who are still suspicious.

However, there's more of a battle ahead than Luce could possibly imagine. She may be an orphan without a past, but no one - including Luce herself - could ever be prepared for the truth of her dark, powerful destiny...


Brand new urban fantasy series by Hailey Edwards, bestselling author of the Gemini and Black Dog series. Perfect for fans of Jennifer Estep, Darynda Jones and Ilona Andrews.

Buy Links:
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Dog with a Bone
By: Hailey Edwards
E-Reader Price: $1.99
Synopsis:
Half-bloods with Thierry’s skill set are given two options. They can join the conclave’s marshal program, or they can pack their bags. Turn down the job offer, and you’ve just shredded your residency pass for the mortal realm and booked yourself a one-way ticket to Faerie.


Texas is the only home Thierry has ever known, and she’s not going anywhere. Even if it means following in her notorious father’s footsteps as a peacekeeper. But pinning on the badge opens her eyes to the fact sometimes fae need protection too, and that sometimes humans are the real monsters.

Read my review here

Buy Links:
Amazon

UNLEASHED by Bella Jacobs Release Day Blitz!

I am so excited that UNLEASHED by Bella Jacobs is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Bella Jacobs, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a $10 Amazon GC, Moon Charms, & eBooks courtesy of Bella and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Title: UNLEASHED

Author: Bella Jacobs

Pub. Date: August 17, 2018

Publisher: Bella Jacobs Books

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 298

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Amazon UK

One woman on the run. Four dangerously sexy bodyguards. And a war brewing that will change the shifter world forever…

I’m living on borrowed time, fighting for survival against a deadly new virus that has no cure and a cult doing its best to brainwash me. But when a mysterious note shows up on my windowsill one night, its chilling message--Run, Wren--launches me out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Within hours, everything I thought I knew about my life, my family, and my origins is obliterated, and I'm racking up enemies at an alarming rate. Between the cult I've just escaped, a violent shifter faction out for my blood, and an ancient evil who eats "chosen ones" like me for breakfast, my last hope is to join forces with four dangerous-looking men who claim they were sent to guard my life.

Luke, a werewolf with a rap sheet. Creedence, a lynx shifter who never met a mark he couldn’t con. Kite, a bear kin with a mean right hook and heart of gold. And Dust, my childhood best friend and dude voted least likely to be a secret shape-shifting griffin.

But are these men really what they seem?

Or are my alpha guardians hiding a secret agenda of their own?

I’m not sure, but one thing is for certain—choosing the right allies will mean the difference between life and death. For me, and everyone I love.

UNLEASHED is book one in the Dark Moon Shifter’s series. It is a true reverse harem featuring one woman and her four mates.

Excerpt

Kite’s breath rushes out, his shoulders sagging with a relief that makes me feel like I’ve done something more important than answer a question. “Good. Keep trusting me, bird girl, and I’m going to show you a whole new world. A world where you can be the powerhouse you are on the inside.”

The backs of my eyes begin to sting, but I’m smiling when I say, “There’s no cure, Kite. I might never go back into remission, let alone get better.”

He pauses, seeming to debate something silently before he whispers, “But then again, you might.” Before I can assure him that hope is a lost cause in this case, he leans down and gently presses his lips to mine and I am the one who’s lost.

My eyes slide closed as my heart lights up, each warm, sweet brush of his lips against mine making my body fill with magic. Electricity floods my nerve endings and my pulse races so fast I know I would fall over if Kite let me go. But he doesn’t let me go, he wraps me up in his big strong arms, hugging me close as he lifts me off my feet, bringing our lips onto a level playing field as he takes charge of holding us both steady. 

With a soft sob of gratitude for this kiss, this miracle, this moment of feeling like the luckiest girl in Seattle, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him with everything in me, not caring if I use up all the energy I’ll need to get home. 

I’m always so careful—I’ve had to be in order to keep working and having some semblance of a normal life long after most people with my condition would have taken to their beds for good—but I don’t want to be careful right now. I want to be alive and wanted and on fire. I want to burn with this man who makes me hungry in a way I’ve never experienced before. 

In just a few moments, Kite banishes every teenage kiss and lukewarm make-out session from my early twenties from my memory, leaving nothing but his smoky, sexy taste in my mouth and his campfire and almond scent swirling through my head.

About Bella:

Bella Jacobs loves pulse-pounding action, fantasy, and supernaturally high stakes, mixed with swoon-worthy romance and unforgettable heroes. She's been a full time writer for over a decade and hit the USA Today Bestseller list multiple times in contemporary romance under her other pen name. She writes as Bella for her trips to the dark side and can't wait to take you on her next adventure. xo! 

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.

1 winner will win a signed paperback of UNLEASHED, US Only.

1 winner will receive a Moon Charm (photo below), US Only.

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