Saturday 22 October 2016

Preparing for Dewey's 24 Hour #Readathon

Reposted from my Sapphired Reads Blog


In a few hours time, I will starting to participate in what I think is my third Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and this time, despite the really late I signed up post ;-P, I am prepared with a capital"P".

Due to a house inspection earlier today, all the housework for the weekend has been DONE!  My four year old is enjoying a sleepover at Nana's house so I will be child free.  This leaves the rest of my weekend wide open to do nothing but READ! :-)

Now one of the most important parts of the readathon comes before it even begins and that is putting together your Readathon TBR pile.  I started preparing mine about a week ago with a goodreads shelf


Nikk's Readathon TBR Shelf

After Alice Midnight Marked Midnight Crossroad Scarlet Paper Towns Angel of Storms The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Since You've Been Gone Every Heart a Doorway The Ruby Talisman The Things I Didn't Say The Forgotten Pearl A Beautiful Wedding Dance with the Devil Red Hill Reunion Pass The Courtesan Frost Like Night

Then I started pulling the physical books out.  I may have gotten a just a little enthusiastic :-P



Finally narrowed it down to starting with these below and then can pick from my above image depending on my mood.



Again this is always subject to change.


The next thing to consider is The reading space.  I love my reading space.  It gets great sunlight during the day and I have a nice light in the evenings.  Its comfy.  I can spread out, and its right next to the book shelf for when I am ready to move on to my next book :-)



Next is reading materials.  I visited the library earlier today for a last minute browse for anything worthy of adding to the TBR pile.  3 of those books made it to the very top!



Even more exciting was the new purchase I made just a couple of hours ago.  My previous kindle paperwhite was stolen a few months back so I finally purchased a new one this afternoon.  It's charging and i have already loaded it up in preparation :-)



The last important thing to organise is snacks.  The right snacks make you read faster!  It's true, I promise! :-P



These are my pre-readathon preparations, I am ready to go as soon as we hit the start. Are you reading this readathon? What books are on your TBR pile? As do you have any pre-readathon rituals or things you like to do in preparation?

Comment below and let me know.

I will be updating on Sapphired Reads every few hours to update my progress as well as on instagram so keep popping back to see how I go.

Happy Readathon everyone!  May you have a great 24 hours of reading!


Wednesday 19 October 2016

Book Blast + Giveaway: Skye (The Dragon Kings #4) by Kimberly Loth


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Hello Readers! Welcome to the Book Blast for
Skye (The Dragon Kings #4) by Kimberly Loth!
Check out the excerpt below and
be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

skye-cover

Rowan Winters is completely in love. With a shifter dragon.
But the drop-dead gorgeous Skye only thinks of Rowan as her best friend. But when she turns up in his room in the middle of the night in tears, he yearns to do whatever he can to help her. Even if that means running away and letting his family think he’s dead.
Skye’s entire world turns upside down the day her scales turns black. She knows she’ll have to flee to find answers. But she wasn’t planning on Rowan coming too. She just wanted to say goodbye. He is so eager to help that she can’t leave him behind even though she knows she’ll never be able to love him in return.
Together, they fight off murderous dragons and uncover sinister plans. But can they find the answers Skye so desperately seeks? And can Rowan sacrifice everything he knows to win her heart?
add to goodreads
Skye ( The Dragon Kings #4)
by Kimberly Loth
Publication Date: October 2016
Available for Purchase:
Amazon

excerpt



Skye was a coward. She knew that, but she couldn’t bring herself to stay and watch Sid and Aspen commit suicide. There was no way the council would allow Aspen to become queen.
Not to mention that then Skye would have to know the exact moment when she died, because anyone who pledged loyalty to Sid would die the second he did. No, running away was better. She should have enough time to get to her parents before death came. She’d able to say goodbye.
This was her fault. Pearl had told her to keep Aspen safe. Instead she’d gone and made everything worse. Maybe if she’d kept Aspen at home, Sid would’ve been fine.
If she’d never given Sid that damn loyalty seal, she wouldn’t be this close to death. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking at that time. Part of her thought he’d make it. Another part didn’t care whether she lived or died. It wasn’t like she’d have much of a life anymore.
When Sid became King she found Everett and begged him to remove the seal that marked how much she loved him. He did and now she longer had a swirl of gold on her ankle. But Everett warned her there would be a price to pay. She gladly paid it at the time, but but she hadn’t expected to feel so empty.
For a half second she thought about heading to Everett’s instead of her parents. Maybe he could remove the loyalty seal before she died. She shook her head. How cowardly of her. The price would not be worth it. That was for sure.
She was only fooling herself though. She would make the same decision if given the choice. Aspen was the only way they could possibly survive. When Skye dropped Aspen off , there were three possible outcomes. One, she and Sid would die and all those with loyalty seals would as well. Two, Helios, the final dragon that Sid needed to secure all the loyalty seals got to him before the council had a chance to killed him. Or three. Aspen could be become queen. She’d have to convince the council that she should be queen and pass the queen’s tests She hoped Aspen could do it.
She felt her wings tiring. This could be the beginning of her death. She hadn’t known anyone who had died because of the loyalty seal and didn’t know how it worked. She spotted a lake below her and decided to stop and get a drink. She had to make it home.
Skye landed a little rougher than normal. This had to be the end. She staggered over to the water and took a deep drink. The water sparkled under the full moon. Skye stretched her wings out and swiveled her neck around to scratch her nose. She froze. Her wing was no longer silver.
This must be part of her death. Or at least that was what she tried to convince herself of. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she no longer felt tired. Dragons didn’t change color before they died. In fact dragons never changed color. Except when they became king. Then they turned black.
Skye spun neck around the other direction. It was more than her wings that had changed. Her whole body was now a deep coal black.
This was impossible. There was no way she could become king. Sid was king. Unless he died. Then someone else would take his place, but that someone had to be a full royal dragon and male. Of which she was neither. There had to be some huge mistake. This had to be a dream. She stuck her head in the cold water and came out again. Still black. This wasn’t possible.
Unless.
That stupid prophecy.
The one that said three kings would rise. The one that said they could come from other races. But she was still female. Something was definitely wrong. She was also still very much alive. She couldn’t go see her parents now, not like this. No, she had to go see the one dragon who could explain how this happened.
She wracked her brain trying to think of everything she’d learned about the prophecy. She loved history and so she studied a lot, but this baffled her. Nothing in the prophecy said anything about a girl. She’d spent hours listening to Everett’s boring details about the prophecy, yet he hadn’t mentioned that females could become kings. He was so in for it.

Chapter 2
Skye changed direction and instead of heading south for the warm waters of the gulf, she flew northwest. Her mind tried to make sense of what just happened. Her anger for Everett had turned into fear of what was to come. Everett would have the answers. But she might not like the answers he gave.
She certainly didn’t like the consequences of his last answer. To never love again. That was the cost of removing the seal to Sid. She gladly gave it up. But now. Now something was missing and she ached to love again.
After an hour she flew over Yellowstone and marveled at the fact that she wasn’t dead. That meant Sid and Aspen were still alive as well. Perhaps Aspen had become queen. Skye hoped so. She liked her. Plus, if the prophecy was fulfilled, Sid would be the right leader for the job.
She flew over Sid’s house and faltered for a second. Rowan was asleep in there. Sweet Rowan. He’d become her best friend. Her heart tightened at the thought of never seeing him again. It was strange how the ache she often felt disappeared when she was around him. He made her feel human.
She didn’t know what would happen when she found Everett. But if she was a king and the prophecy was being fulfilled, she’d be too caught up in the dragon wars to even think about her human friends. She supposed it couldn’t hurt to stop and say goodbye. She owed him that. After all, he’d been there for her when no one else had been.
She dove for the house before she talked herself out of it. She wanted to feel human again, if only for a minute.


About-the-Author2
kimberly-loth

Kimberly Loth can’t decide where she wants to settle down. She’s lived in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Utah, California, Oregon, and South Carolina. She finally decided to make the leap and leave the U.S. behind for a few years. Currently, she lives in Cairo, Egypt with her husband and two kids.
She is a high school math teacher by day (please don’t hold that against her) and YA author by night. She loves romantic movies, chocolate, roses, and crazy adventures. Kissed is her first novel.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

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Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

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Thursday 13 October 2016

Cover Reveal + Giveaway: The Boyfriend Whisperer by Linda Budzinski

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Welcome to the Cover Reveal for
The Boyfriend Whisperer by Linda Budzinski
Be on the look out for this upcoming release from Swoon Romance!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
 
boyfriendwhisperer
 
As President and CEO of Boyfriend Whisperer Enterprises, Lexi Malloy is Grand View High School’s undercover Cupid. One problem: She’s stuck in the friend zone when it comes to her own crush, Chris Broder. She and Chris have been best friends since the third grade, and he doesn’t even seem to realize she’s is a member of the opposite sex.
When pretty and popular cheerleader Lindsay LaRouche hires Lexi to whisper Chris, she has to decide whether to place her commitment to her company—and Chris’s happiness—before herself.
add to goodreads
The Boyfriend Whisperer by Linda Budzinski Publication Date: November 15, 2016 Publisher: Swoon Romance
Available for pre-order: Amazon
 
About-the-Author2
Linda Budzinski
 
Linda Acorn Budzinski decided in the second grade that she wanted to be a “Paperback Writer,” just like in the Beatles song. She majored in journalism in college and now works in marketing and communications. She spent 18 years at a trade association in the funeral service industry, where she discovered that funeral directors are some of the bravest and most compassionate people on earth. Linda lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Joe, and their chihuahua, Demitria. She has two step-daughters, Eris and Sarah. THE FUNERAL SINGER is her debut novel. She is represented by Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger Inc
 
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Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
 

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Wednesday 21 September 2016

Cover Reveal: All Laced Up by Erin Fletcher

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Let us know what you think of the cover for All Laced Up (Breakaway #1) by Erin Fletcher, which releases October 10, 2016!

This cover reveal is brought to you by Entangled TEEN!
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About All Laced Up:

Everyone loves hockey superstar Pierce Miller. Everyone except Lia Bailey.

When the two are forced to teach a skating class to save the rink, Lia’s not sure she’ll survive the pressure of Nationals and Pierce’s ego. Not only can’t he remember her name, he signed her bottle of water like she was one of his groupies. Ugh.

But if there’s one thing Lia knows better than figure skating, it’s hockey. Hoping to take his ego down a notch—or seven—she logs into his team website under an anonymous name to give him pointers on his less-than-stellar playing.

Turns out, Pierce isn’t arrogant at all. And they have a lot in common. Too bad he’s falling for the anonymous girl online. No matter how much fun they’re starting to have in real life, she’s afraid he’s going to choose fake-Lia over the real one…

Disclaimer: This book contains a swoony hockey player (and his equally swoony friends!), one-too-many social media accounts, kisses that’ll melt ice, and a secret identity that might not be so secret after all…

Want to read more? Pre-order your copy of All Laced Up today!

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Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

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About Erin Fletcher:

Erin is a young adult author from North Carolina. She is a morning person who does most of her writing before sunrise, while drinking excessive quantities of coffee. She believes flip-flops qualify as year-round footwear, and would spend every day at the beach if she could. She has a bachelor's degree in mathematics, which is almost never useful when writing books.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Entangled Publishing

Monday 19 September 2016

Teaser Tuesday #124: Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3) by Josephine Angelini





Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. 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!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My current read is Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3) by Kim Wilkins and my four lines are from location 356 of 5214


Her smile at Una's and Juliet's sweet gesture to leave this room for her turned hesitant as she considered whether or not their host's flower choice had been intentional or coincidental. Lilies are commonly used in arrangements, so it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to think that this was just a happy accident.


 Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3) by Josephine Angelini


Lily Proctor has come a long way from the weak, sickly girl she used to be. She has gained power as a witch and a leader, found her way home, chosen to face battle again, and (after losing her first love and being betrayed by her new love) she has learned more about loss and grief than she ever wanted to know.

Thrust once again into a society different from anything they have ever seen, Lily and her coven are determined to find answers―to find a new path to victory, a way to defeat the monstrous Woven without resorting to nuclear weapons or becoming a tyrannical mass murderer like her alternate self, Lillian. But sometimes winning requires sacrifices . . . and when the only clear path to victory lies at Lillian's side, what price will Lily be willing to pay?

Internationally bestselling author Josephine Angelini takes us on another emotionally wrenching thrill ride in the stunning conclusion to her Worldwalker Trilogy.



 check out the good reads link

Publication Date: 13 September 2016

Saturday 17 September 2016

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Olivia Decoded (Olivia Twisted #2) by Vivi Barnes

Olivia Decoded Banner


Welcome today's stop on the Olivia Decoded by Vivi Barnes Blog Tour  hosted by YA Reads.   Today's stop is a review as well as a chance to enter the great giveaway that is being run throughout this tour.

The Review:


I really enjoyed this second book in the Olivia Twisted world. As the original book had been a re-imagined Oliver Twist, I was interested to see where book 2 would go.

I thought this was a clever continuation. The story flowed well and I finished the entire book story in a matter of hours. Olivia in general felt like quite a genuine character and how her life had panned out since finding her grandfather made sense. This story starts 3 months after the events of the original story so circumstances had changed for most of the characters and it was good to see where they all were and how they were coping. Some better than others.

The story is told from both Olivia and Jack/Z's perspective which gave us two different story threads which I felt Ms Barnes intertwined and eventually merged well with twists and turns that had me turning the pages quickly to see how it would all turn out. I also liked the vein of romance throughout the story with the relationship between Olivia and Jack, strained ( or non existent) as it was given the events of book one and the direction it took during this story. I felt like it moved in a way that felt authentic and and where it was at the end of the story made sense in the story.

I kind of picked the ending alittle but it didn't matter too much as I thought the whole story wrapped up quite nicely and I had a lot fo fun reading this.

I give this story 3 3/4 stars :-)





Olivia Decoded (Olivia Twisted #2)


Olivia Decoded


Book Title: Olivia Decoded (Olivia Twisted, #2)
Author: Vivi Barnes
Release Date: Sept. 6, 2016
Genre: YA Thriller
Olivia Decoded Book Synopsis:

This isn’t my Jack, who once looked at me like I was his world. The guy who’s occupied the better part of my mind for eight months.

This is Z, criminal hacker with a twisted agenda and an arsenal full of anger.

I’ve spent the past year trying to get my life on track. New school. New friends. New attitude. But old flames die hard, and one look at Jack—the hacker who enlisted me into his life and his hacking ring, stole my heart, and then left me—and every memory, every moment, every feeling comes rushing back. But Jack’s not the only one who’s resurfaced in my life. And if I can’t break through Z’s defenses and reach the old Jack, someone will get hurt…or worse.


Goodreads  |  Amazon |   Barnes & Noble | iBooks | KoboAmazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon Aust  | Entangled Publishing




About the Author:


ViviBarnes

Vivi Barnes was raised on a farm in East Texas where her theater-loving mom and cowboy dad gave her a unique perspective on life. After college, she convinced her supportive husband to

move with her to be part of the sunshine and magic in Orlando, Florida. On a good day, she manages to divide her time writing, working, reading, goofing off with her three kids, and avoiding dirty dishes. Vivi is a proud member of SCBWI and attends conferences whenever she can.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads




Go back the beginning of the series

Olivia Twisted (Olivia Twisted, #1):


Olivia Twisted



Tossed from foster home to foster home, Olivia’s seen a lot in her sixteen years. She’s hardened, sure, though mostly just wants to fly under the radar until graduation. But her natural ability with computers catches the eye of Z, a mysterious guy at her new school. Soon, Z has brought Liv into his team of hacker elite—break into a few bank accounts, and voila, he drives a motorcycle. Follow his lead, and Liv might even be able to escape from her oppressive foster parents. As Liv and Z grow closer, though, so does the watchful eye of Bill Sykes, Z’s boss. And he’s got bigger plans for Liv…

Thanks to Z, Olivia’s about to get twisted.



Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Amazon UK  |
Amazon CA | Amazon Aust |Entangled Publishing




The Giveaway:

A signed copy of Olivia Decoded + a $25 Amazon Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Read below for an excerpt from the book:
“Wow, who gave you that?”

“My grandfather. He left it on my car seat this morning.”

“Oh, boo. I thought maybe you had a secret admirer or something.” I try not to smile at her obvious disappointment. Emerson’s been on me to date for months now. She knows I had someone back in Richmond who was special, but only that we broke it off before I moved here. She doesn’t know anything else about Jack. No one does, because what would I say? The last guy I dated is a criminal, and the last time I saw him was right after we got kidnapped by his horrible boss and almost died trying to escape. That’d go over really well.

“I don’t know, what do you think?” Emerson breaks into my thoughts as we walk down the hallway to our lockers.

“About what?”

She sighs. “Where Kade’s taking me tonight. Girl, you are not with it today, are you? Are you doing anything tonight?”

“My grandfather’s taking me to dinner.”

“Sweet. Not so romantic, but sweet.”

I smile. “Yes, he’s sweet. But a little over the top on gifts sometimes.” Even after eight months of living the wealthy life, I’d be happier if he gave me a gift card to a bookstore instead of extravagant jewelry I rarely wear.

My phone starts buzzing, and I pull it from my pocket. Grandfather’s text reads: What gift?

I frown, typing, The bracelet you left in my car. I snap a quick picture of the bracelet on my wrist and send it to him. Maybe his text was a hint to send a picture, though I doubt it. He’s usually pretty direct about things.

“What’s up?” Emerson asks.

“Looks like Grandfather forgot he left me the bracelet.” But even as I say it, it doesn’t sound right. He’s one of the sharpest people I’ve ever known, and he runs a financial institution.

“Maybe he gave it to one of his staff to put in your car.” Her voice has the usual bitter tone whenever she’s thinking of her parents. They’re hardly ever around, and when they are, they don’t pay much attention to her.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I don’t believe that, though. Even though it’s possible Mrs. Bedwin did put it there, I doubt it. Grandfather is the type to handle things himself when it comes to me. But Emerson’s parents travel so much for their business that they often let their staff handle things like birthdays and other events they think aren’t important. So as grateful as I am that Grandfather’s always there for me, I don’t like to rub that in Emerson’s face.

“Maybe you really do have a secret admirer,” she says hopefully.

I roll my eyes.“I doubt that.”

“Oh, really?” She stops in her tracks, her eyes fixed straight ahead. I follow her gaze, a sharp sense of dread creeping down my spine. A white rose is dangling from the vent in my locker.

A rose I know wasn’t placed there by my grandfather.