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August 7, 2018

Blog Tour & Extract: Jinxed by Amy McCulloch

Welcome to the second day of the JINXED blog tour! It’s my tour stop today and I’m here with an extract from the book. I’ll be reviewing the book really soon, so look out for that shortly! Read on for one of the most unique YA books I’ve come across this year…

Title: Jinxed

Author: Amy McCulloch

Published: August 9th, 2018

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Find the Author: Goodreads

Disclosure: I was sent this ARC by the publisher, reviewing it as an impartial review. This does not sway my opinion of the book. As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased.

Lacey Chu has big dreams of becoming a companioneer for MONCHA, the largest tech firm in North America and the company behind the “baku” – a customisable smart pet that functions as a phone but makes the perfect companion too. When Lacey finds out she hasn’t been accepted into Profectus – the elite academy for cutting edge tech – it seems her dreams are over. Worst of all, rather than getting to choose one of the advanced bakus, she’s stuck with a rubbish insect one.

Then, one night, Lacey comes across the remains of an advanced baku. Once it might’ve been in the shape of a cat but it’s now mangled and broken, no sign of electronic life behind its eyes. Days of work later and the baku opens its eyes. Lacey calls him Jinx – and Jinx opens up a world for her that she never even knew existed, including entry to the hallowed halls of Profecus. Slowly but surely, Jinx becomes more than just a baku to Lacey – he becomes her perfect companion. But what is Jinx, really? His abilities far surpass anything written into his code or built into his motherboard. He seems to be more than just a robotic pet. He seems … real.

PROLOGUE:

She burst through the trees, cradling the monster in her arms.

The whine of a pulse gun sounded in the wood; she ducked and the shot flew over her head, obliterating the trunk of a beech tree in front of her. Panic rose in her throat. They weren’t just out to destroy the monster.

They were going to kill her too.

She kept running, her feet slipping inside the blue plastic overshoes she hadn’t had time to remove before bolting from the lab. She’d known this day would come – she’d crossed the line so far, it was no longer even a mark on the horizon. But she still hadn’t been ready.

How could you ever be ready to lose what you’d been working on your entire life?

The creature vibrated against her chest, a red light pulsing against its hot metal skin like a heartbeat. It wriggled in her arms, trying to escape – as if it too knew what was coming – but she tightened her grip. She just had to make it to the other side of the ravine, to the emergency car that would take them to safety.

The next shot hit her shoulder and she wasn’t sure who screamed louder: her, or the creature. She stumbled, one leg collapsing underneath her as her foot sank into a crevice hidden by a carpet of fallen leaves. She dared to glimpse down and her heart almost stopped: the creature’s metal body was smoking, the acrid stench of burnt electronics filling her nostrils. The pulse guns were doing their job, destroying it from the inside out.

She pulled her foot free and pressed on. The bridge was so close she could feel the rumble of trains as they passed underneath. Yet the heavy booted steps of the men behind her were louder still.

‘Come on, come on,’ said the voice crackling in her ear.

She must have come into range of her partner’s communication device. She forced her legs to pump harder, ignoring the sticky wet stab of pain in her side . . .

Barely had her toe crossed the threshold on to the bridge when alarms started wailing, hidden IP protection sensors blaring from the tree line. Traps sprung from the ground, nets that coiled around her legs, tripping her up. ‘I’m down!’ she screamed into her earpiece. ‘Help me!’

‘Cutting comms, link destruction in process.’ Almost as an afterthought, he added, ‘Sorry.’ And then the line went dead.

Another pulse thumped her in the back, launching her forward and sending the monster flying from her arms. She had no choice but to watch as the smoking hunk of metal disappeared off the side of the bridge. Her assailants ran past her now, flinging themselves at the railing, leaning out over the edge and watching the blaze of sparks sent up as the metal monster hit the electrified track.

It was gone. Her life’s work: destroyed.

The men turned back to her, gun barrels levelling at her head. She closed her eyes and accepted the inevitable.

Down on the tracks below, the monster shuddered with one final pulse of life. As a train thundered down the tracks towards it, it only had the energy for the faintest sound.

It purred.

HOW INCREDIBLE DOES THAT SOUND?!

. . .

Amy McCulloch is the author of The Potion Diaries series (under the name Amy Alward) which has sold in eight languages around the world and was a Zoella Book Club pick in 2016. Her current sci-fi series, JINXED, is out from Simon & Schuster UK in August 2018.
Before becoming a full-time writer and freelance editor, Amy was editorial director for Penguin Random House Children’s Books, where she worked with many YA and MG authors and published the #1 international bestseller GIRL ONLINE by Youtube sensation Zoe Sugg, and its follow-ups GIRL ONLINE: ON TOUR & GIRL ONLINE: GOING SOLO. Previously she was also commissioning editor for HarperVoyager, where she worked with some of the top SF&F authors in the world. In 2013, she was named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars of publishing. An adrenaline junkie with a love of adventure travel, she’s never in the same place for long. Other addictions include coffee, ramen and really great books.

You can follow Amy here and add JINXED to your Goodreads here!

Have you heard of JINXED?

What intrigues you most about it?

For me, it’s partially that cat on the cover (obviously) and that fast-paced “what will happen next” feeling I get reading the extract!

JINXED is out August 9th – don’t miss this firecracker read!

happy reading!

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March 22, 2018

Guest Post: Where I Write by Sophie Cameron (author of Out Of The Blue)

Title: Out Of The Blue

Author: Sophie Cameron

Published: March 22nd, 2018

Publisher: Macmillian Children’s Books

Find the Author: Goodreads

Add To Goodreads

Sometimes, I imagine alternate endings to the story: last-minute miracles, touches of magic. I picture how things might have gone, if I wasn’t there. If I’d left just a few minutes later. If I hadn’t been alone. It doesn’t make any difference. One way or another, the crash always comes.
Ten days after Jaya Mackenzie’s mum dies, angels start falling from the sky. Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived.
Hysteria mounting with every Being that drops, Jaya’s father uproots the family to Edinburgh intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can’t stand this obsession and, struggling to make sense of her mother’s sudden death and her own role on that fateful day, she’s determined to stay out of it.
When her best friend disappears and her father’s mania spirals, things hit rock bottom and it’s at that moment something extraordinary happens: An angel lands right at Jaya’s feet, and it’s alive. Finally she is forced to acknowledge just how significant these celestial beings are.
Set against the backdrop of the frenzied Edinburgh festival, OUT OF THE BLUE tackles questions of grief and guilt and fear over who we really are. But it’s also about love and acceptance and finding your place in this world as angels drop out of another.

Where
I Write – Sophie Cameron

This is my current writing spot, in my flat
in Barcelona. I moved here from Ibiza in January and into this flat just a few
weeks ago, so I’m still getting used to it all. So far, I’m liking it a lot – despite
being right in the centre of the city it’s really quiet, and the room gets lots
of nice light in the mornings. Also, someone across the road is an amazing pianist, and it really adds to
the atmosphere when they play. Thanks, anonymous neighbour!

I try to get up early to write here for an
hour or so before I start work every morning. I don’t always manage it (I like
my bed too much) but I find I usually get my best writing done then. Right now
I’m finishing up edits on my second book, but soon I’ll be moving onto drafting
book three. There’ll be a hundred times more post-its then!

About The Author:

Sophie Cameron is a YA author from the Black Isle, Scotland. Her first novel OUT OF THE BLUE will be published by Macmillan Children’s Books / Roaring Brook Press in 2018. She lives with her wife in Spain, where she works as a copywriter and spends her time writing, reading and learning foreign languages.

I don’t know about you, but that writing area looks incredible!

Who else can’t wait to read Out of The Blue? It’s out TODAY and you can buy it on Amazon or Book Depository, as well as your local bookstores (subject to availability).

Let me know in the comments, on twitter @LittleMemoirs or on Facebook!

happy reading!

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September 19, 2014

Book Review: “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown

Title: Red Rising

Author: Pierce Brown

Genre: Young Adult – Dystopia/Fantasy

Release Date: September 25th, 2014

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton

AUTHOR SITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS

I received this from Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review. As always, my reviews are fair and non-bias.

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future.

Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow– and Reds like him– are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’ s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’ s ruling class.
There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

This book definitely intrigued me right from it’s synopsis. I’m a HUGE dystopian fan, so I’m always looking out for new ones in the genre – and Red Rising looked like it fitted everything I look for in my dystopia literature.

Dystopian books seem to be literally everywhere at the moment with all the success of YA books turned-to-film like Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Divergent, and I won’t be the only one to say how I would immediately go and see Red Rising on the big screen.

Darrow, our main character, is a Red, a helldiver – an extremely dangerous type of miner on Mars, unlike the Golds, who are better than them in the society. He married his childhood sweetheart at sixteen and like all the Reds around him, he works everyday, making the surface of Mars ready for the future population to live on. He does this because ultimately, he knows it will someday benefit his future children and not just his future family, but others. It’s not long before he finds out that everything he knows – and everyone around him – has been a massive lie. Mars is already habitable and has been for a very long time. Now, he is thrust into being the one to save the Reds – he must become the best Gold he can, whilst pervading their system. He has to be the best he can be – better than all the rest – to attack them from the inside of their own region. But the Golds are lethal, treacherous people, who kill or be killed.

Red Rising is a thrilling ride of dark, gritty and remarkable characters and plot. Pierce Brown has created a dystopian world full of phenomenal twists and a roller-coaster of betrayal and a mystic, enigmatic tale. He created a magnificent hero of Darrow, a character that just joined my top favourites in a series – competition for Katniss and Tris!

Overall, Red Rising is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner – they would join the already growing fans of the series and tear them from the shelves. This is definitely going to be the next big thing in YA literature!

The quote that stuck with me was definitely:

“Love and war are two different battlefields.”

Fans of YA and Adult dystopia and fantasy. If you’ve finished The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner, PICK THIS UP!

Have you read Red Rising?

What did you think?

Tell me in the comments, on twitter or by using the hashtag #RedRising

happy reading!

December 2, 2013

Book Blitz: “If Only We” by Jessica Sankiewicz + GIVEAWAY!

Title: If Only We

Author: Jessica Sankiewicz
Genre: Young Adult – Coming-Of-Age
Release Date: October 27th, 2013

Summary from
Goodreads:

They say all it takes is one wrong move
and you lose the game. One false step and you’re trapped. One slip-up in your
choice of words and you ruin a friendship forever. That is what they say. They
say I lost.

I do not believe them.

At the end of the summer after graduation, Adrienne wonders what happened to
cause her life to be in ruins. She isn’t getting along with her mom, her
stepsister isn’t talking to her, and, to top it off, the boy she’s been in love
with doesn’t want anything to do with her. She believes the turning point was a
choice she made at graduation. When she wakes up the next day, she has been
transported back three months to that moment, the one where everything started
to fall apart.

Adrienne realizes she has been given a second chance—and this time she doesn’t
want to mess anything up. Reliving the entire summer, though, turns out to be a
lot harder than she thought. As the same days and weeks go by, she starts to
see how simple decisions can make a huge impact on the world around her.
Despite knowing some of what lies ahead, there are some things she didn’t
anticipate. She thought she knew what mistake led her to where she ended up the
first time. She was wrong.

And by the time summer is over, she discovers what was really at stake.

Excerpt!

Why am I hesitating? I knew this
day was coming. I knew I would see Chevy again. It’s not just seeing him, it’s
the circumstances. I haven’t had anyone remotely close to me die before now.
Though I didn’t know his father, I know Chevy, and Chevy needs me.

After a deep breath, I get out
of the car. The heat beats down on me twice as much in my black dress. The
sleeves are longer, going down to my elbows. It seemed more appropriate than
the sleeveless one. I stand there a moment to figure out which direction to go
and finally settle on the center path.

I would have been here for the
funeral yesterday if I hadn’t taken my car in to get the air-conditioning
fixed. My dad is on call a lot, since he’s a surgeon at a prestigious
Cincinnati hospital. He can’t leave town
at the drop of a hat, even if it is to take his daughter to a funeral. I wasn’t
able to find anyone else to drive down to pick me up, not even my mom.

I should have called Chevy. Why
didn’t I call him? Not only did I not call him when I heard about his father, I
didn’t call him once the whole time I
was away. I kept thinking about the reason I left to begin with. I couldn’t
pick up the phone because I couldn’t tell him the reason.

Because the reason was him.

Available from:

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About the
Author

Jessica is
the 28-year-old author of IF ONLY WE, a YA contemporary. You can often find her
either reading or marathon watching TV on DVD, her favorites being Castle and
Veronica Mars. She frequently mismatches her clothes and giggles
uncontrollably. She knows almost every Billy Joel song by heart. She collects
books and toys, and she has an intense love of cats and lemurs. Currently in
the midst of her quarter-life-crisis, she is still takin’ names and getting
very close to reaching an epiphany.