Tomorrow Is Today (Tempest #0.5) by Julie Cross

Rating: 5 stars

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, throws lots of parties, is interested in a girl he can’t have, and oh yeah, he can travel back through time.But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

Tomorrow is Today is such a fun look into the world of Tempest. Tempest is a book that I absolutely loved, so this prequel look was just great. I was sad when it ended, as I had gotten so caught back up into Jackson, Holly, and Adam’s world. After finishing, I basically wanted to go pick up Tempest and reread it once again. This was a nice tide over for me until next year when book 2 is out, and I can dive back into Jackson’s story.

Beasts and BFFs (13 to Life #0.5) by Shannon Delany 

Rating: 3.5 stars

A Bonus 13 to Life Prequel Story.

Meet Jessie Gillmansen as she realizes that things might not be what they seem in the town of Junction.

This series is a lot of fun, and Beasts and BFFs was no exception. It was a really short snippet into Jess’s life before the werewolves came into her life, and I really enjoyed reading it. I was sad to see it end, as the world Shannon Delany has crafted is so easy to get caught up in. Plus, I just ADORE that cover!

(If you loved Tempest or the 13 To Life series and want these novellas, they are free novellas! I linked in the titles to Amazon if you are interested)

The winner of the Historical Fiction Prize Pack is ….

Kelly W  Martha L

The winner of Mostly Good Girls is….

Heather H Sara G

Congrats! Please email me at thebookcellar @ wi.rr.com within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen .

This week I got:

Review:
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver
Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stenz
Awakened by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life by Tara Altebrando

Won:
The Summer of No Regrets by Catherine Grace Bond

Bought:
The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter
Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott
And the other books I bought are all so that my series match wonderfully :)
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
Ironside by Holly Black
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
Second Helping s by Megan McCafferty
Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty
Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty

Rating: 4.5 stars

It’s summer break for the girls at Beachwood Academy and that means sun, surf, and sensational escapades at the Beachwood Country Club. Abby, a rising sophomore, is so excited to have gotten a last-minute gig as a lifeguard, especially because jobs are usually reserved for club members.

Abby desperately wants to win the annual lifeguarding competition, and with it a college scholarship. But when she arrives for her first day on the job, she finds herself face-to-face with some serious club member attitude. And there’s an even bigger surprise waiting for her: the gorge senior boy she’s been pining over ever since they met at a swimming competition earlier this year.

Can Abby break through the rules, regs, and mean girls to be the first-ever non-club member to win the summertime lifeguarding competition and maybe even the boy of her dreams?

I just love the Pretty Tough series. Books with girls who play sports are always some of my favorite sort of reads, and Making Waves delivers an awesome read with some serious drama, lifeguarding, and friendship fun.

It was really fun to get to know Abby in this one. I just love the characters in this series, and in Making Waves, quite a few new characters pop up.  All the characters always have such a great story to tell.  I just loved Brody. He was such a great guy.

Making Waves holds a plot that was a ton of fun to read. Right away I was swept up into Abby’s world. While there is a romance in this one, there also is focus on friendship as well, which is always lovely. I wanted there to be a bit more drama at the end. There was a really great build up of the plot throughout the whole book, but I felt like everything was a bit too simplistic.

A must read for anyone who loves a good contemporary. Making Waves by Nicole Leigh Shepherd was a fast paced, all around fun kind of read. I look forward for the next installment in this series, as I just love it so much.  It’s a perfect blend of the beach, drama, romance, and some good old friendships.

Promo by Jeff Strand

I’m Tyler Churchill. Not too long ago I had this insane adventure, with car chases and body parts coming off and everything, which I wrote about in the book A Bad Day For Voodoo. It’s not my job to say that it’s the best book ever written, but I will say that if you don’t read it, the following conversation will definitely take place:

[You're walking down the sidewalk, whistling the merry tune of your choice. Up ahead you see a friend.]

YOU: Hi, friend!

YOUR FRIEND: Hi, you! Crazy party last night, huh? I’ve never seen anybody eat that many pretzels without getting a drink of water!

YOU: And who brought the rhinoceros? I kept thinking “Whoa, somebody is gonna get tusked!” but nobody did, which is good because it would have been funny at the moment of impact, but not so funny once we got into the screaming and bleeding and ambulances.

YOUR FRIEND: Were you there for the ritual?

YOU: What ritual?

YOUR FRIEND: You’ll find out. [His or her expression darkens, and he/she gives you a wicked smile.] Oh, yes, you’ll find out.

YOU: Seriously, what ritual? There was a ritual? Where was I?

YOUR FRIEND: When the time is right, all will be revealed.

YOU: C’mon, tell me what the ritual was! You can’t just throw something like that out into the conversation and then not give answers! Tell me! I need resolution! Resolution!

YOUR FRIEND: I was just kidding. We were all sitting around playing Words With Friends on our phones. Somebody played “rhinoceros” on a triple-word score, which was pretty ironic. Actually, I played “rhino” first and they added “ceros.” So what did you think of A Bad Day For Voodoo?

YOU: That new book? I didn’t read it.

[Several onlookers gasp.]

YOUR FRIEND: Excuse me?

YOU: I said I haven’t read it.

YOUR FRIEND: You…you…you haven’t read A Bad Day For Voodoo?

YOU: No. That’s okay, isn’t it?

YOUR FRIEND: Okay? Okay? Don’t you understand what this means? It means that you’re not cool!

YOU: But that’s not possible! I do cool things all the time!

YOUR FRIEND: It doesn’t matter! This is the book that will define our generation! If you’re ever on a game show and the host says “For twenty thousand dollars, please give us the definition of your generation,” you could hold up A Bad Day For Voodoo and win the twenty thousand dollars!

YOU: But…but…but…but…but…but…but…I thought it was just a silly book!

[Your friend shakes his or her head and sighs.]

YOUR FRIEND: No. It is not.

SOME GUY WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE IN THE AREA AND IS EAVESDROPPING ON THE CONVERSATION: You really haven’t read A Bad Day For Voodoo? Wow. I heard that those people existed, but I never thought I’d see one outside of a zoo.

YOU: You don’t have to be a jerk about it.

YOUR FRIEND: Yes, he does.

YOU: Oh.

YOUR FRIEND: I never knew you were so uncool. It’s like our whole friendship was a lie.

YOU: You’re making too big of a deal out of this.

YOUR FRIEND: Do you see all of those weird-looking colorful waves that are coming out of people’s eyes?

YOU: Ack! Yes! What are those?

YOUR FRIEND: Those are waves of judgment. Everybody is judging you. This will follow you around for the rest of your life.

YOU: No! I don’t believe you!

[You get hit by a car.]

YOU: Ow! Ow!

YOUR FRIEND: That’s what happens when you don’t read A Bad Day For Voodoo. Bad luck follows you everywhere. Watch out for that circular saw blade.

YOU [quickly ducking]: Aaah! That circular saw blade almost took my head off!

YOUR FRIEND: And you’ll need your head to read A Bad Day For Voodoo! Do you understand now?

[A monkey jumps out of a tree and starts punching you in the neck.]

YOU: I understand! I understand!

YOUR FRIEND: Your coolness meter is running out quickly, but there is still time to replenish it! Run to a bookstore or an internet and buy A Bad Day For Voodoo! Hurry, before it’s too–

[The earth begins to crumble around your feet.]

YOUR FRIEND: Oh no! It’s too late! The world needed your coolness! It’s the only thing that kept us from being all dystopian and stuff!

[Zombies--fast or slow, your choice--show up and start eating people.]

PEOPLE CURRENTLY BEING EATEN [in unison]: Nooooooo!

YOU: What have I done? What have I–

[Suddenly you wake up screaming.]

YOU: It was all a dream! Only a terrible, terrible dream! In fact, the book A Bad Day For Voodoo doesn’t even really exist!

SOMEBODY (YOU’RE NOT SURE WHO): Yes, it does. It’s just not out yet. But it will be in June 2012. And you’d better buy it, or the next time you wake up screaming, Effie Trinket will be drawing your name for tribute.

YOU: Then I shall mark my calendar, or better yet, pre-order a copy of A Bad Day For Voodoo right now!

See? You may think I made all of that up, but I assure you that my only concern is for the safety of the world. And even if you don’t care about the world, you should read about the time that my history teacher Mr. Click falsely accused me of cheating on a test, and my friend Adam got a voodoo doll of him, and I jabbed it with a pin during class, and things went wrong, wrong, wrong!

My girlfriend Kelley, who is smarter than both of us combined, also got caught up in the whole thing, and you will not believe the kind of stuff that happened. It’s crazy! I mean, we ran into this one family who…well, you don’t want spoilers, but it was one messed-up family.

Oh, the book is my completely true story, but the publisher put the name “Jeff Strand” on the cover, because of some sort of ransom demand. Just ignore that.

Okay, so, you know what to do, right? Awesome. See you in June.

————————————-

About A Bad Day for Voodoo by Jeff Strand:  When your best friend is just a tiny bit psychotic, you should never actually believe him when he says, “Trust me. This is gonna be awesome.”

Of course, you probably wouldn’t believe a voodoo doll could work either. Or that it could cause someone’s leg to blow clean off with one quick prick. But I’ve seen it. It can happen.

And when there’s suddenly a doll of YOU floating around out there—a doll that could be snatched by a Rottweiler and torn to shreds, or a gang of thugs ready to torch it, or any random family of cannibals (really, do you need the danger here spelled out for you?)—well, you know that’s just gonna be a really bad day …

Buy the Book: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Add A Bad Day For Voodoo on Goodreads

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The Bro Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (Free)

Anna Banks is the author of Of Poseidon. She lives with her husband and daughter in the Florida Panhandle. You can find her on the web at her website, Goodreads, and Twitter.

Could you give us the one sentence pitch of your book?

A merman prince has to convince a human girl that her gift will save his kingdom—oh, and he’s got to do it without falling for her, since she’s supposed to marry his brother and all…

Since you have a fantasy novel coming out, the next question I obviously have to ask is: If you were a fantastical creature, which would you be?

I bet you expect me to say mermaid, huh? Nope. I’d rather be a sasquatch. Tall, dark, handsome, smelly, hairy, and mysterious. Yep. That’s the life. :)

Do you have a favorite fantasy read?

Why yes, yes I do: FIRE by Kristen Cashore.

Generally speaking, which comes first: the world, the characters, or the plot?

The characters. Who they are, what they know, how they feel, what their habits, their secrets, their hopes are. Then how they’ll react to the plot twists you throw at them. From there, you build your world around them and house them firmly in the center.

They are always coming out with new editions of board games. If your book could be a special edition of any board game, which would you choose?

Oh Em Gee these are fabulous questions! I would say Operation, because it scares the shizzle out of you when it buzzes, and it’d be fun to act like Dr. Milligan and learn about Syrena “parts”.

Thanks for stopping by Anna!

Make sure to like the Fierce Reads facebook page. Anna Banks is going on tour with several other authors, and all the details can be found there! I will be at the stop at Anderson’s in Chicago (so if you are going LET ME KNOW!)

About Of Poseidon:

Emma and her friend Chloe are spending vacation in Florida. When Emma (literally) runs into a hot guy named Galen on the beach, little does she know he’s a prince of the Syrena. Galen and Emma both feel something strange – is it attraction? – and Galen suspects that Emma might well be the girl he’s heard of – a human who can communicate with fish.

What follows is a deadly scene with a shark in which Galen witnesses Emma’s gifts. He must know more about her, and follows her back to New Jersey, and high school, to find out for sure if she’s the key to saving his kingdom. Soon, Emma can’t deny her feelings for him, but can’t explain them, either – and both she and Galen must learn more about where she comes from and what her powers are before they can trust one another and their feelings.

Buy Of Poseidon: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Rating: 4.5 stars

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.

Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope—and to love—once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become… The Last Princess.

The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze was one awesome read! It was one of those books that I knew within the first 10 pages that I was going to love it. I read straight through this one, devouring every page.

I loved the plot – it was constant action and a lot of intrigue. The plot doesn’t let up for a moment, so it was a really fast paced read. My one complaint about The Last Princess is that some of the pacing felt a bit off. The first half of the novel was very nicely paced, but a ton happened in the second half and it seemed like it should have been a bit more spread out.

The world Galaxy Craze has created in The Last Princess is eerie and frankly, downright scary at parts. I just loved it. It was so easy to get caught up in the characters world, and with that, be very swept into the plot.

The characters in The Last Princess were a really strong set. I really liked Wesley – I wished he had had a bit bigger of a role, as he was wonderful.  Eliza was a really strong heroine, I really liked her as well. I do wish the character motivations had been explored a bit more in-depthly, as what they did made sense and worked but you never really knew why.

The ending was very clever. I cannot wait to see what follows it with the rest of Eliza’s story in the sequel.  The characters in this book each had such a unique tale to tale – I would especially love to know Portia or Westley’s history. I really just loved this one a ton.

I would definitely recommend The Last Princess to everyone! It’s a very cool dystopian in the sense you never really have an idea of what year you are in. I loved the plot and the characters were great – a must read!

I just heard about the Bout of Books readathon, and I am totally signing up!   I love readathons, and I have wayyyy too many books to read – so why not do a readathon?

Since I don’t actually know how much time I will have, I am aiming for at least a book a day, so 7 books over the whole week.

Books I Am Hoping to Read:

Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
Endure by Carrie Jones
Point of Origin by Amanda Havard
When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Making Waves by Nicole Leigh Shapard
The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze
Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker

Updates:

5/14

Read:
Last 85% of Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker (204 pgs read)
Overdue For Pleasure by Shelley Aikens (166 pgs read)
Endure by Carrie Jones  (272 pgs read)
The Ash-Born Boy by Victoria Schwab (short story) (61 pgs read)
Page Total:  703 pg

5/15:

Read:
The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze (304 pages)
reread Major Crush by Jennifer Echols (304 pages)

Daily Page Total: 608
Daily Book Count: 2 books

Total Page Count: 1311 pgs
Total Book Count: 6 books

5/16:
Making Waves by Nicole Leigh Shepherd (246 pages)

Daily Page Count:  246
Total Page Count: 7
Total Book Count:  1557