Giveaway & Review: Queen & Commander by Janine A. Southard

Title: Queen & Commander

Author: Janine A. Southard 

Publication: May 2014

Publisher: Janine A. Southard 

Source: Author/Publisher

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Audience: 15+

Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Synopsis: 
On a world where high school test scores determine your future, six students rebel. They’ll outrun society as fast as their questionably obtained spaceship will take them.

Rhiannon doesn’t technically cheat the Test. She’s smarter than the computers that administer it, and she uses that to her advantage. She emerges from Test Day with the most prestigious future career possible: Hive Queen.

Gwyn & Victor are madly in love, but their Test results will tear them apart. Good thing Rhiannon is Gwyn’s best friend. Rhiannon can fix this. Queens can do anything.

Gavin is the wild card. Raised off-planet, he can’t wait to leave again... and he’s heard of an empty ship in orbit. The Ceridwen’s Cauldron.

Both Luciano and Alan fit in the system. They don’t need to leave. Only their devotion to Rhiannon spurs them to join the Cauldron’s crew.

Spaceships. Blackmail. Anywhere but here.

My Thoughts: This is a story about friendship and loyalty. Rhiannon is a determined girl as are her friends. She is determined to be queen even though she is natural inclined toward perceiver. He need to be Queen was born out of her desire to be with others. The death of her mother was the driving force of this need. No one thought one could study for the test but Rhiannon found a way. 

This book has great character development. Time is spent getting to know each character a little and a basic understanding of their individual motivation for wanting to create/join the hive. During the course of the story many problems arise. As a result of these problems the hive's first mission could be their last. 

Author Bio:

Janine A. Southard writes and edits speculative fiction in between working on videogame projects. She’s attended more than the average number of universities, which she claims is a FEATURE. (“Oxford educated, but Californian at heart.”) She’s also lived and traveled in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Currently, she lives in Seattle with a husband (and a cat) and sings with a Celtic band.

Website|Goodreads|Twitter

Giveaway: This giveaway is for three (3) signed copies of both books in the Hive Queen Saga and one (1) ebook copy of both books in the Hive Queen Saga plus an unrelated novella. This giveaway is sponsored by the Author and/or Xpresso Book Tours. Please use the rafflecopter form below to enter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Audio Review: Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep by Liz Kessler

Title: Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep 

Author: Liz Kessler
Narrator: Finty Williams
Publisher: Listening Library
Format: Unabridged Audio
Length: 4 hours 13 minutes

Publication: December 6, 2007

Source: Library

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade

Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Synopsis:
An enchanting tale with a fabulous monster, engaging characters, plenty of mermaid magic, and a page-turning story, Liz Kessler's new middle-grade fantasy has all the charm and warmth of its predecessor, THE TAIL OF EMILY WINDSNAP.

Picture an island set in a glittering blue sea, sparkling with white sand and palm trees, a secret place where humans and merfolk live together and where a girl who grows a mermaid's tail when she enters the water is not considered a problem. To Emily Windsnap - half mermaid, half human - her new home is perfect. That is, until Emily ruins everything by waking a legendary sea monster known as the Kraken from its hundred-year sleep. As the Kraken rises from the deep, putting the future of the islanders in jeopardy, Emily makes a desperate attempt to save them. But how could she have dreamed that her best friend, Shona, would stop talking to her, or that Mandy Rushton, her old enemy from junior high, would turn up when least expected?

My Thoughts: Emily drags her best (and only) friend, Shona into a restricted cave in attempts to impress some of the mer girls. In the process Emily and Shona awaken the terrifying Kracken. This action drives the girls apart. Will Emily be able to defeat the Karcken on her own? 

In this second tale of Emily Windsnap Mandy, Emily's nemesis, and Emily's stories intertwine. Neither girl is anxious to encounter the other as they both feel the other has ruined her life. Emily struggles with friendships and jealousy all the while trying to adjust in new surroundings and getting use to having a father. Emily's curiosity could be the end of her new home as she may have crossed Neptune one to many times. 

Waiting on Wednesday #6

Expected Release: July 1, 2014

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane comes a chilling mystery—Prepmeets The Crucible. 
 
It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.
 
First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.
 
Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .
 
Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Expected Release: July 1, 2014
Kerana is being sent to Earth to begin her duty as an Eldurian. Hers are a perfect people, without flaw and without sin, never experiencing the fall of man. Created by God to shepherd His people on Earth, they remain in the shadows, unnoticed. Kerana looks human, speaks like them, and has been taught to act like them. Above all her mission is to serve the humans.

Arriving on Earth, Kerana meets Eli at school. He is an ordinary human, with a father suffering from alcoholism, and a past that threatens to ruin his life. A star scholarship lacrosse player, Eli has to forget his true passion and live in a shell that doesn’t let anyone in. Until he meets Kerana. They find themselves intertwined in a connection that neither can quite explain. When this connection puts the two of them in danger, they find comfort and protection from each other. When Eli discovers that there is more to Kerana than just her stunning looks and grace, the Eldurians and their home planet of Eden may not remain a secret for very long.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Teaser Tuesday #3: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. 

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Teaser: 

"Do it" she says through tears "I want to die. Do it. Please. We don't have a choice" 

"It'll be quick," i whisper. Then I drive the dagger right into her heart. 

p , The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

Audio Review: The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

Title: The Silent Wife

Author: A.S.A. Harrison

Narrator: Karen White and Donald Corren

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Format: Unabridged Audio

Length: 8 hrs 57 mins

Publication: June 29, 2013

Source: Library

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery

Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Synopsis: 
A chilling psychological thriller about a marriage, a way of life, and how far one woman will go to keep what is rightfully hers

Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.

My Thoughts: This story really made me think, what would I do in the same situation? Many times I found myself yelling at Jodi. As a mental health professional I felt that she should know how to respond to the situations she is faced with and not be in denial. At the same time I realize that I probably would have done the same thing. 

Todd is a self made man. He has worked hard to become the businessman that he is today. He is selfish yet he wants to do the right thing. I both loved and hated Todd. I loved him for wanting to do the right thing and hated him for treating Jodi as if she were nothing. In the end I wasn't sure as to who was actually responsible but I was pleasantly satisfied with how things ended. 

This is a multi-voiced unabridged audio production. The original work is appropriated for the audio medium. The narrators bring feeling and depth to the story. Each narrator clearly differentiated each character. Pace is well maintained throughout the production and plot flows with interruption. 

Waiting on Wednesday #5

Expected Release: June 24, 2014

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days--as he has done before--and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives--meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Waiting On Wednesday #4

Expected Release: June 2014

If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.

Expected Release: June 2014
Welcome to Gardnerville.

A place where no one gets sick. And no one ever dies.

Except...
There’s a price to pay for paradise. Every fourth year, the strange power that fuels the town exacts its payment by infecting teens with deadly urges. In a normal year in Gardnerville, teens might stop talking to their best friends. In a fourth year, they’d kill them.

Four years ago, Skylar’s sister, Piper, was locked away after leading sixteen of her classmates to a watery grave. Since then, Skylar has lived in a numb haze, struggling to forget her past and dull the pain of losing her sister. But the secrets and memories Piper left behind keep taunting Skylar—whispering that the only way to get her sister back is to stop Gardnerville’s murderous cycle once and for all.

Expected Release: June 2014
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.

Expected Release: June 2014
Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.
 
Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.
 
Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .
 
In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.