Author Appreciation Day #huganauthor

Here at The Blog Tour Exchange, we're all about spreading author love, so I wanted to tell you about a cool upcoming blog hop from member Susie Levine, Author Appreciation Day. We all know that having good reviews (both in quality and quantity) is critical for small press and indie authors, so use Author Appreciation Day as an excuse to post a review this week!

In Susie's words:

"We have decided that this Friday, May 3rd, shall be Author Appreciation Day. And we decided to make it a blog hop!

All you have to do is pick a book you like that you haven't rated or reviewed and post it up on your blog with a sentence or two (or more) about why you liked it. Then, link your post with the LinkyTool so we can check out who you've chosen.

And since you've done that much, maybe you can put that review/rating up on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, etc?

Let's make history today and celebrate those fabulous people who teach us things, transport us to other worlds, make us fall in love and also show us an alarming number of elaborate ways to kill someone. :)

Use the hashtag #huganauthor on twitter on Friday. Let's see if we can get it to trend!"

Visit her original post here. 

In response to Susie's blog hop, the Blog Tour Exchange will be hosting Book Blogger Appreciation Day on 5/14! Stay tuned for more details.

New Tours Seeking Matches

We have three tours that are currently seeking matches! You may have already been contacted about these, but if anything catches your eye, please contact me or leave a comment. You can also request review copies here.

Title: Heaven's Core by Erika Lindsen
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Science fiction romance

When lives are decided by the end of the blade, what happens when it’s forever sheathed?

Ten years ago, aliens made contact with Earth, offering technology and cures for diseases in exchange for water. The world watched as peace was made, seventy billion miles brought together.

But not all felt this union was a good thing. On both alien and human sides, Rebels opposed the treaty and some would do anything to break up this intergalactic bond. Earth had an answer to those who threatened it: the Core, a group of mercenaries that dealt with Rebels by any means necessary.

As a member of the Core for three years, Hannibal is good at what he does. But the bodies he’s piled up are starting to weigh heavily on his shoulders and he knows what the Core does isn’t justice, but murder.

Hannibal escapes the Core headquarters in search of his own peace. While on the run, he’s injured but is taken in by a Tez. Problem is, she is beautiful, vivacious, and a Rebel, his sworn enemy. Hannibal’s training has taught him to kill her on sight. He finds his duties get much harder with each passing day. But if he doesn’t do the job, there’s a long list of colleagues that will.

Title: Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh by Katie Hamstead
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Historical Romance


Oh yes, Kiya. Make him love you, make him hold you in his highest regard....

When Naomi’s sisters are snatched up to be taken to be wives of the erratic Pharaoh, Akhenaten, she knows they won’t survive the palace, so she offers herself in their place. The fearsome Commander Horemheb sees her courage, and knows she is exactly what he is looking for…

The Great Queen Nefertiti despises Naomi instantly, and strips her of her Hebrew lineage, including her name, which is changed to Kiya. Kiya allies herself with Horemheb, who pushes her to greatness and encourages her to make the Pharaoh fall in love with her. When Akhenaten declares Kiya will be the mother of his heir, Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Kiya.

Kiya must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. If she does bear an heir, she knows she will need to fight to protect him, as well as herself, from Nefertiti who is out for blood.

Title: Exacting Essence
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Speculative/paranormal/horror

Megan’s nightmares aren’t normal; normal nightmares don’t leave cuts and bruises on waking. Desperate, Megan’s mother accepts a referral to a new therapist; a doctor dealing with the business of dreams—real dreams. The carnival of terrors that torments Megan nightly is all just a part of the Dreamworld, a separate reality experienced only by those aware enough to realize it. On her quest to destroy the Nightmares feeding from her fear, Megan encounters Intershroud, the governing entity of the Dreamworld, and must work with her new friends to stop the agency from continuing its evil agenda, and to destroy her own Nightmares for good.

To be a part of the Exacting Essence blog tour, please sign up here:
http://wolfonwater.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/singup-for-exacting-essence-by-james-wymore-blog-tour/

Review copies of The Charge are available on NetGalley!

If you review books on your blog, I'd love your review of The Charge! You can now request a free copy from my publisher on NetGalley.

While you're there, check out some of the other great Curiosity Quills books on NetGalley.

When King of the Texas Empire kidnaps Warren's brother, Warren embarks into a still Wild West to save him. On his journey, he makes a discovery that changes his life forever—he and his brother are long-lost members of the Texas royal family and the King wants them both dead. 

He gets help from an activist Texan named Lena, who's itching to take on the King and happens to be a beautiful firecracker Warren can't stay away from. Convincing her he's not one of the bad guys becomes harder when a mysterious energy stirs in his body, turning his brain into a hive of emotions and memories—not all his own.

A legacy of violence is not all he inherited from the brutal Kings of Texas. The myth that the royal family possesses supernatural powers may not be myth at all.

Gone are the days when choosing a major was a big deal. Now Warren must save his brother and choose whether or not to be King, follow a King, or die before he can retire his fake ID.


Links

Sharon Bayliss Fan Page

Sharon Bayliss Twitter

Curiosity Quills Press

The Charge on Goodreads

Advance Praise

"Great book full of suspense, shocking characters, and a unique alternate history that made me grateful for my country and normal summer rain storms." -Charissa Stastny

Seeking blog tour hosts for Buried by Gerilyn Marin

I'm happy to present a tour from one of my Curiosity Quills sisters, Gerilyn Marin. You may recognize the YA paranormal, Buried, as a serial on the CQ Blog. Well, now it's being released on March 18th in novel form!

"The plot behind the story is like almost instantly catching. Flying rocks and volatile erasers set the amusing, yet obviously haunted scene right off the bat. Despite the plot, my favorite traits of Gerilyn is her ability to mold characters. She makes them amusing, annoying, smart, and flawed to perfection. That is hard to do!" - Review of Buried (the serialized version) by Kay Froebel

Like every resident of Fane’s Cove, Cadence McKenna knows her town is, well, odd. And yet, they’re accustomed to the near-daily supernatural happenings- so accustomed, in fact, that when Gray Addison moves to town and stays, she is shocked to find that she’s the only one who insists that there must be something strange about him.

With her life-long- if minor- psychic sensitivity handed down from her grandmother, she knows that what she feels isn’t simple paranoia. After all, how many normal guys pay no mind to random poltergeist activity occurring right in front of them?

Cadence can’t blame anyone for wanting to ignore that there might be more to his presence there- perhaps if he is a normal guy, it’s just the first sign that whatever it is about the town that drives visitors away is fading. She might have even grudgingly let it go, but then she sees Gray acting very suspiciously and knows that she can’t dismiss her feelings until she understands why he’s in Fane’s Cove. Even if it means sticking her neck out by pretending to get close to him . . . and learning more about her town’s history than anyone would ever want to know.

Sooo...if you would like to be a part of the Buried tour, please leave a comment or contact me.

By the way, have you seen all the great new Curiosity Quills titles available on NetGalley? You can request them here.

Two spooky new tours seeking hosts

I've got two new tours for you, both of which give me a little chill up my spine. These authors are currently seeking tour stops and reviewers. If you're interested, please let me know in comments or contact me.

Sunshine in Darkness by Beth Winokur

Young Adult Paranormal

A dark, demon-like creature has possessed Sunshine’s body since the day she was born. Now, seventeen years later, she is done watching from the outside while the Intruder wrecks her life. When the opportunity arises to reclaim her body, she takes it.

Finally back in her body, Sunshine is arrested and, with her mother’s approval, sent to a mental institution where Intruders abound. Sunshine must learn who she is, take charge of her life, fight the Intruders, and look sane while doing it.

The Prince of Earth by Mike Robinson

Adult Horror/ Literary

In 1988, young American traveler Quincy Redding is trekking across the misty terrain of the Scottish Highlands. She is destined for the infamous peak Ben MacDui, the summit of which soon finds her inexplicably debilitated and at the mercy of a malevolent entity.

The book spans twenty years, alternately following Quincy in her 1988 ordeal in Scotland as well as Quincy in 2008, when, as an adult, she begins experiencing abnormalities that threaten her family and her life – phenomena that may be related to what happened all those years ago.

As both older and younger Quincy learn more of their situation, and as their worlds further entwine, she becomes increasingly uncertain of the perceived temporality or reality of each period.

Seeking hosts for The Charge blog tour

Grab the badge!

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Soon I will be scheduling stops for my own debut release! The Charge blog tour will run from March-April. My goal with this tour will be to schedule a wide variety of posts in addition to the usual suspects. If you're interested in hosting me, I'll provide you with a catalog of posts to choose from. I'm also happy to provide custom content for your blog on request. 

If you're interesting in reviewing The Charge (as part of the tour, or just whenever you are able) I'd love to get you a copy!

Warren King protected his brother, Isaac, from bullies ever since Isaac decided to wear a top hat to the third grade.  So when Isaac is kidnapped, Warren heads out to bust some faces.  But Warren didn’t expect the bully to be the King of the Texas Empire.  Warren learns that he and his brother are estranged members of the Texas royal family and the new King is hunting down his relatives before the true heir decides to say, “Hey man, you’re in my seat.”

Warren must save his brother and avoid capture himself armed with nothing more than a fifteen-year-old Camry and MapQuest directions to Texas.  He gets help from a spirited Texan named Lena, the first girl who ever made him want to do things like iron creases in his pants.  She’s ready to help him take on the King, but since she’s an anti-monarchy activist dating the son of the President of the United States, he’s not sure if she’s going to kiss him or shoot him.  Gone are the days when choosing a major was a big deal.  Now he must embark into a West that stayed wild and choose to be King, follow a King, or die before he can retire his fake ID.

THE CHARGE was a quarter-finalist for the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and won a Publishers Weekly Review:

A solid cast of well-developed characters, including a “super-tall” royal Texan family, stars in this thrill ride of a novel teetering between sci-fi adventure and alternate historical epic. Set in a time after the fall of the evil Texas Empire at the hands of the United States government, average Joe Warren King discovers that his geeky loner little brother has been kidnapped, and his mother inexplicably urges him to flee to Canada. Instead, Warren travels to California, a former Texas Empire territory, where he comically tries his hand at sleuthing to track down his genius brother, Isaac, who seems to have been actively testing their DNA for a mysterious “blue chromosome.” Warren soon learns that the people who abducted his brother are after him too, and it is all tied to the blue chromosome and his sudden realization that his body is giving off a powerful electrical charge that he can’t explain. At a measured pace, the engrossing history of this parallel world is revealed, along with the politics and legends that accompany the now extinct royal Texan Wildes family -- a beautiful, physically homogenous, and abnormally tall clan believed to have preternatural abilities, and perhaps a connection to Warren himself. Easily shifting between characters’ perspectives, and relentless in its action, well-placed humor, and suspense, this manuscript is a delight.

Publishers Weekly is an independent organization and the review was written based on a manuscript version of the book and not a published version.

I'm so fortunate to have an awesome group of bloggers for a support network. Thanks in advance for all your help getting the word out about my debut release.

Thank you!

You know I love forms! :)

Seeking hosts for the hard fantasy romance, Disciple, Part II

I'm proud to welcome back L. Blankenship. Some of you may have hosted Disciple, Part I, and now you have the opportunity to get a first look at Disciple, Part II.

The prince first kissed Kate Carpenter for fear of missing the chance if they didn’t survive the journey home through the monster-prowled mountains.

Now that kiss seems like a fever dream. It’s back to work for her, back to the fellow physicians jealous of her talents and the sneers of an infirmary director who wants her shipped off to some tiny village. Kate means to be on the front lines to save lives. She’s worked too hard to overcome her past to let them deny her the chance to serve her homeland when the enemy’s army reaches their kingdom.

The grand jousting tournament is a chance to prove she can manage combat wounded, and at the royal Solstice banquet Kate means to prove she isn’t an ignorant peasant girl anymore.

But the prince’s kiss still haunts her. Their paths cross at the joust, at the banquet, and the easy familiarity they earned on the journey home is a welcome escape from their duties. It’s a small slip from chatting to kisses.

Kate knows it’s foolish; he’s doomed to a political marriage. As a knight, he will be on the battleground this spring. The kingdom needs every defender, every physician, focused on the war. The vast and powerful empire is coming to slaughter anyone standing between them and the kingdom’s magical fount.

Kate ought to break both their hearts, for duty’s sake.

L. Blankenship was the winner of the full service blog tour from the grand opening giveaway, so I'll be contacting hosts on her behalf. We'll be scheduling Blog Tour Exchange tour stops from 4/1-4/30. Review copies should be available around mid-February, and if you're interested in doing a review, you can request a copy here.

I'll be contacting hosts very soon. If you want to make sure you're on the list, comment on this post or shoot me an e-mail.
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Read a sample of Part I, Chapter 1 • Read a sample of Part II

Cover and blurb for Part I or Part II

Disciple, Part I is available at all major online retailers • Disciple, Part II on sale April 1st!

Pre-order Part II, or pick up a bundle of both parts, NOW at Kickstarter! 

Disciple, Part I on Goodreads • Part II on Goodreads