Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf

Spotlight on Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare (Excerpt & G!veaway)

noreply@blogger.com (Melissas Eclectic Bookshelf) — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:30:03 PDT

The Book

Title: Any Duchess Will Do

Series: Spindle Cove #4

Author: Tessa Dare
Pages: 384

Reading Level: Adult

Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Avon
ISBN: 978-0062240125
Publication Date: May 28th, 2013
Available Formats: Paperback, E-Book

Add the book: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Today Pauline is just a serving girl in Spindle Cove but tomorrow... she'll be a Duchess?! It's a Spindle Cove Pygmalion story as only New York Times Bestselling author Tessa Dare can tell it.

What's a duke to do, when the girl who's perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can't live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season-or any season-but his diabolical mother abducts him to "Spinster Cove" and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn't dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week's employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother's "duchess training"… and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn't a miserable failure. She's a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure-a woman who ignites Griff's desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won't be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess-can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?

Excerpt

Another girl’s prince has arrived.

That was Pauline’s first thought, when she stumbled in and spied the finely dressed man silhouetted in the door.

She watched it happen every few months in this village. These young ladies sought refuge in Spindle Cove for the oddest of reasons. Their harp-playing lacked grace, perhaps, or the color of their eyes was unfashionable at Court this season. And then—to the utter astonishment of everyone excerpt Pauline—some handsome earl or viscount or officer came along and married them.

None of them spared so much as a glance for the serving girl.

So which lady was this one after? Whoever she was, she’d be set for life. Everything about the man’s appearance—from ivory buttons to fitted leather gloves—blared his wealth in trumpet notes. And if his garments screamed “riches,” everything beneath them spoke of power. It would be easy for a gentleman to go soft and paunchy, but he hadn’t. The close cut of his dark gree topcoat revealed broad shoulders and defined muscles in his upper arms.

His face was strong, too. Boldly sloped nose, squared jaw, and a wide, confident mouth. There was nothing pretty about his features, but when taken together, they had an undeniable masculine appeal.

In short, he was no trial to look at. But even if he weren’t—Pauline couldn’t take her eyes off the man.

Because he wasn’t taking his eyes off her.

The Author

Tessa Dare a part-time librarian, full-time mommy, and swing-shift writer. She makes her home in Southern California, where she shares a cozy, cluttered bungalow with her husband, their two children, and a dog.

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook

The Giveaway

Tour Wide Giveaway 5 print copies of each (US Only)

A NIGHT TO SURRENDER

A WEEK TO BE WICKED

A LADY BY MIDNIGHT

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cat Thursday - I Spy

noreply@blogger.com (Melissas Eclectic Bookshelf) — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:30:04 PDT

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s) and then link up at the host's site: The True Book Addict.

It's all for the love of cats!

Sky on Fire Author, Emmy Laybourne, Talks Character Development (Plus Giveaway)

noreply@blogger.com (Melissas Eclectic Bookshelf) — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:49:39 PDT

I am beyond thrilled to welcome Emmy Laybourne, Author of the Monument 14 Series, to Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf today. I absolutely adored both Monument 14 (See my 5 Star Review of Monument 14 ) and Sky on Fire which I will be reviewing here on the blog next Monday May 27th 2013.

Guest Post

It’s such a pleasure to be here on my blog tour for SKY ON FIRE, the second book in the MONUMENT 14 trilogy. Melissa has asked me to share with you some of my process in terms of character development.

I’m delighted to be asked to dig into a “writer’s topic.” I love story structure and I frequently teach workshops and classes on writing - so it’s fun to get to go behind the scenes with you into some of the craft that makes the series work.

The MONUMENT 14 series features a large cast of kids, from age 5 - 18. In creating and working with such a large cast, I needed to put a lot of thought into making the characters different from each other, so the reader would be able to keep straight who was who!

But another challenge came along with that one - how did I make the characters different enough without resorting to stereotypes?

I had to rely on my gut. That’s the truth. I tried to use a very organic, deep method of finding and developing the characters in the book.

Some of the characters leapt right into being the moment I started thinking about the story. Dean was right there to narrate the book -- he emerged, fully formed, into my mind. A few bloggers have asked me why I didn’t make the narrator a girl - after all, most YA books are written for female readers. For me, that was never even an option. MONUMENT 14 was Dean’s story to tell.

Another character that came right to the forefront of my imagination and demanded an audience was Max. Little towheaded Max was basically pulling at my elbow, asking me to make a record of his adventures in the lowlife, backstreets of Monument, CO.

Other characters I drew from people I've known in my personal life. For example, Jake is an awful lot like a guy I had a crush on at George School, my high school, though I doubt my mystery man ever got into as much trouble as Jake. And Chloe is based on the kid of a friend. You can bet I'm not saying which kid or which friend. (Chloe's a bit of a pain in the buttinski.)

When I have trouble with a character, I draw from my background as an actor and improviser Back in the ‘90s (yes, the 1990's), I developed a process, along with my friend Sheila Head, for developing characters. It began with the body, working from outside in. We would find the physical key for each character - asking ourselves, where did they hold their energy? Was it in their feet? Their arms? Their hips?

And then we'd walk around with our body crimped up or slouched over or tilting off our tiptoes until we located the voice of the character. The voice led to the personality. The personality led to the heart - how did that character feel about the world? How did they protect themselves from others? How did the character love?

Using these tools, I would walk around the little space of my writing office, bringing Astrid or Brayden or Batiste into my body. Yeah, I know, it sounds kooky. But it works.

Another trick Sheila taught me was to go character surfing at the mall. I'd loiter around and watch for people who looked and behaved like the characters I was trying to summon. Then I'd study them. Sometimes I'd even walk behind them and copy their gait. Again, kooky, I know, but when you're making art - you use what you got. It was using this method that I got a better handle on Alex. I saw a kid who’s posture was so tidy and squared-off - I could see his world-view just from the methodical way he paced the mall.

It was my goal, that by fully living into my characters, they would rise above the labels that any reader would automatically assign. The reader was bound to put labels on, if only to help keep everyone straight. So I knew Josie'd become "the motherly one," and Brayden would be "the bully," and Sahalia "the slutty, troubled girl." The challenge was for me to get to know them so that the details our narrator Dean gave about them would break them out of those roles in the reader's mind.

I'd love to know if you think I succeeded. And if you think that the characters fell into stereotypes at times… well… let's blame Dean. He's the one who stepped up to tell the story in the first place!

The Book

Title: Sky on Fire

Series: Monument 14 #2

Author: Emmy Laybourne
Pages: 212
Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan
ISBN: 978-0312569044
Publication Date: May 28th, 2013
Available Formats: Hardcover, E-Book

Add the book: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Synopsis:

The world hasn't ended...yet.

In this sequel to MONUMENT 14, the group of survivors, originally trapped together in a superstore by a series of escalating disasters, has split in two. Most of the kids are making a desperate run on their recently repaired school bus for the Denver airport where they hope to reunite with their parents, be evacuated to safety, and save their dying friend.

But the world outside is dark and filled with dangerous chemicals that turn people into bloodthirsty monsters, and not all the kids were willing to get on the bus. Left behind in a sanctuary that has already been disturbed once, the remaining kids try to rebuild the community they lost. But when the issues are life and death, love and hate, who can you really trust?

Other Books in the series:

Dress Your Marines in White (Monument 14 #0.5)

Monument 14 ( Monument 14 #1)

The Author

Emmy Laybourne is a writer, actress and teacher who lives in upstate New York. In June of 2012, Emmy’s debut novel, MONUMENT 14, was released by Feiwel & Friends, a division of Macmillan.

MONUMENT 14 is a post-apocalyptic Young Adult thriller that follows the story of fourteen kids who get trapped in a superstore while civilization collapses outside the gates.

The novel received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and was called “Frighteningly real… riveting,” by the New York Times Book Review and was an Editor’s Choice. The sequel, Sky On Fire, will be released in June of 2013. The final installment of the trilogy, SAVAGE DRIFT, is expected in 2014.

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Emmy Laybourne will be on tour in June as part of the Fierce Reads Tour.
See Emmy Laybourne on tour !

The Giveaway

One paperback copy of Monument 14 and one hardcover copy of Sky on Fire.
US/Canada Only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please join Emmy for the rest of her blog tour. Tomorrow's stop will be Book Haven Extraordinaire.

Follow the Whole MacTeenBooks Blog Tour