END of DAY + GIVEAWAY of Touchscreen 6" Kindle & 2 Autographed Collectible Cards

End of Day by Summer Lane 
(The Zero Trilogy #3) 
Publication date: October 9th, 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

Synopsis:

The end has come.

Elle Costas and her dog, Bravo, have survived the dangers of Hollywood and escaped the clutches of Slaver Territory. The apocalypse has been cruel, and the wasteland of California has forced them to seek shelter in a civilian refugee camp at a place called Bear Mountain.

Here, they meet Cheng, a mysterious boy with the skills of a samurai, and Luli, a steampunk warrior with a thirst for vengeance. But friends cannot always be trusted. When a horrific tragedy befalls Bear Mountain, Elle and Bravo come face to face with their most dangerous enemy yet.

Betrayal and heartbreak threaten to destroy the bonds of friendship. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Run, or be caught.
Kill, or be killed.
Fight, or be forced to surrender.

The end of the day will change everything.
Will Elle and Bravo survive?

The explosive, thrilling conclusion to the #1 Bestselling Zero Trilogy by Summer Lane.

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GIVEAWAY:

Blitz-wide giveaway (US/CAN)

Touchscreen 6" Kindle

2 Autographed Collectible Cards

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AUTHOR BIO:

Summer Lane is the #1 Bestselling author of The Collapse Series and the compelling tie-in novella books of The Zero Trilogy, as well as the upcoming Bravo Saga (releasing March 2016). She is also the author of Collapse: The Illustrated Guide, a #1 Bestselling graphic companion to her phenomenal original series.

She is the owner of WB Publishing and Writing Belle, an online magazine. Summer is also an accomplished journalist and creative writing teacher.

Summer lives in the Central Valley of California, where she spends her days writing, teaching, and writing some more. When she is not writing, she enjoys leisurely visits with friends at coffee shops, movie dates, reading and spending the day at the beach or mountains.

Question and Answer with Post-Apocalyptic Author, 

Summer Lane

Does writing post-apocalyptic fiction make you want to be more prepared for an emergency or disaster?

Naturally! Because I’m constantly writing about survival situations, I can’t help but think about how I need to be prepared for an emergency. I walk into a store and think, “If something crazy happens right now, how am I going to react? Will I survive?”

So dramatic, I know. But I can’t help it! My head is ALWAYS in the world of the apocalypse, because I’m always working on my series. By extension, I would say that a good ninety percent of my dreams for the last three years have revolved around the end of the world. Staying alive. Hiding in bunkers under the ground, or escaping the zombie apocalypse. I can’t say that I’m sorry, because I really love writing about survival scenarios.

Who is your favorite character in The Zero Trilogy?

Without a doubt, my favorite character is Bravo. I love his selfless nature and his heroic actions. He’s a true role model for me. I didn’t create him – he created himself, and he’s based on the true inspiration of real heroic canines everywhere who work in the military and in law enforcement.

What’s next for you?

Now that I’ve finished this trilogy, I’m working on the seventh installment of The Collapse Series, and beginning a new trilogy starring Bravo. I am so in love with his story, it’s not even funny. I think everyone will love it, because everyone has heard about the apocalypse from the viewpoint of people – but how about the dog? The way he sees the collapse of the world might be so different than how we see it!

What are your favorite post-apocalyptic book, TV show and movie?

You know, I get asked this question a lot. It’s really hard for me to choose just one favorite! The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is definitely in my top five favorite novels, and so is World War Z by Max Brooks. My favorite post-ap show is The Walking Dead. The zombies terrify the heck out of me, but I watch it for the character development and the outstanding post-apocalyptic sets. Robert Kirkman and Scott Gimple are brilliant.

I’m not sure that I have a favorite post-ap movie. I do sincerely enjoy the Resident Evil films and The Book of Eli. Modernly, The Maze Runner and Scorch Trials are excellent looks into that genre. Movies are bringing it to life better than ever these days.

When you have time off, what do you like to do?

I like to read! I adore my Kindle fire. I love to watch movies and television shows, too. Netflix has been a good friend to me. My fiancé and I like to go out to dinner as much as we can and try new food. I love playing with my kitty, crocheting brightly colored afghans and using sharpie markers to spruce up “adult” coloring books.

http://www.summerlaneauthor.com/

http://writingbelle.com

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A Physician's First Year

BLURB:

In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when he almost lost someone his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients.

This funny, candid memoir of McCarthy’s intern year at a New York hospital provides a scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, taking readers into patients’ rooms and doctors’ conferences to witness a physician's journey from ineptitude to competence. McCarthy's one stroke of luck paired him with a brilliant second-year adviser he called “Baio” (owing to his resemblance to the Charles in Charge star), who proved to be a remarkable teacher with a wicked sense of humor. McCarthy would learn even more from the people he cared for, including a man named Benny, who was living in the hospital for months at a time awaiting a heart transplant. But no teacher could help McCarthy when an accident put his own health at risk, and showed him all too painfully the thin line between doctor and patient. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly offers a window on to hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor: How do you learn to save lives in a job where there is no practice?

Review:

The blurb perfectly describes this read since the book is basically a longer version of it. As a reader, you follow Matt as a first-year intern through his rotations learning how to execute medicine also ascertaining which specialty would be the most suitable for him. During this intense time Matt slowly realizes he not only wishes to heal his patients physically but also gain a caring bedside manner finding it more complex than he fathomed. It’s noteworthy to this reader that one bona fide doctor out in the world still cares about their bedside manner. There is no real focus on actual medical procedures, but you do get an idea about certain ones such as resuscitation, I.V., and ports.

The plot has a slow flow to it and in some areas jumps around. Such as, he would be focused on an important aspect like when he stuck himself with a needle, then fade into another subject, but then in another chapter, “oh by the way about the needle stick”,. Having worked in the medical field myself all medical procedures were 98% correct, one was a laugh out loud moment for me because it is so ridiculous, when Matt is running a code on a middle-aged woman “...defibrillator pads were slapped on the woman's chest and back”.  What good would it do on her back? Is someone going to hold her on her side while she is shocked with between 200-1,700 volts? OUCH! One last thing usually only frail people or children get broken ribs when doing compressions not everybody.  

This book is a rare look into one interns psyche. I am sure many readers will find The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly enjoyable. I did not dislike the book, but it is not one of my favorites either. Matt’s story will stay with me. Why you ask? Because Matt did not focus on being some hot-shot doctor trying to get as many patients giving them little respect. His goal is to know his patients as people while giving them high-quality care.  

Thank you “Netgalley” for letting me give an honest review

About this author

Matt McCarthy is an assistant professor of medicine at Cornell and a staff physician at Weill Cornell Medical Center. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Slate, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Deadspin, where he writes the Medspin column.

LINKS:

http://www.drmattmccarthy.com/

@DrMattMcCarthy

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BOOK BLITZ + GIVEAWAY

Curse of the Sphinx (Sphinx #2)

by Raye Wagner
Publication date: August 9th, 2015

Genres: Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

How long can a monster stay hidden in plain sight?

Seventeen-year-old Hope Nicholas has spent her entire life on the run. But no one is chasing her. In fact, no one even knows she exists. With her mom, she’s traveled from town to town and school to school, barely staying long enough to meet anyone, let alone make friends. And she’ll have to keep it that way. It’s safer.

When her mother is brutally ripped away from her, Hope’s life shatters. Is this the fulfillment of Apollo’s curse, murder from the shadow monsters of the Underworld, or have the demigods finally found her? Orphaned and alone, Hope flees again, but this time there’s no one to teach her who to trust—or how to love.

Set in a universe where mythology is alive and well in the modern world, Curse of the Sphinx irresistibly blends action, suspense, and romance.

EXCERPT

The box slipped from her hands, the contents spilling on the asphalt. The sleeve of her mom’s sweater landed in the gutter, the splash of red contrasting with the darkness around her.

Even before she turned to the car, the fermented stink of alcohol wafted on the breeze. Two men, just more than shadows, came from the left, their drunken gait slow as they ambled toward her car. Even if she ran, she couldn’t get in the car before they reached her. She sucked in a deep breath.

Adrenaline washed through her body, and her muscles tensed. The sound of her heartbeat pounded in her ears, pages of a book rustled in the wind, and then the sharp intake of breath from a man.

The shorter man leered, and his brown eyes bespoke his mortality, and his smirk promised pain. His fist clenched the handle of something. A hammer? No, a wrench.

The taller man’s gait was steady, and something about his features was . . . off. Wrong. Washed out. And . . . his eyes! Two solid orbs of pitch. 

  Skia.  

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Raye Wagner grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, the second of eight children, and learned to escape chaos through the pages of fiction. As a youth, she read the likes of David Eddings, Leon Uris, and Jane Austen. Inspired by a fictional character, Raye pursued a career in nursing, and thought to help the world one patient at a time.

One summer afternoon, a plot dropped into her head, and she started writing.

Raye enjoys baking, Tae Kwon Do, puzzles, and the sound of waves lapping at the sand. She lives with her husband and three children in Middle Tennessee.

http://rayewagner.com/

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The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014

The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014 include:

               *ALA                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

              

Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying”

2.   Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”

3. And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Reasons: Anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda"

4. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”

5.  It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Additional reasons: “alleges it child pornography”

6. Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Additional reasons:

7. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence

8.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”

9. A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group

10. Drama, by Raina Telgemeier

Reasons: sexually explicit 

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”            ~  Steven Chbosky

*Hey, let's be like North Korea!

*If I don't believe in it nobody should...

*My child can watch a movie based from a book just not read the book.

Does free speech not apply to books?

What can you come up with on the reason for banning books?

BOOK BLITZ - FREE BOOK - & GIVEAWAY

Hookah by Cameron Jace 
(Insanity #4) 
Publication date:
Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

A Plague Scarier than Death

Alice and the Pillar have to stop a Wonderland Monster who’d lashed out an incurable disease onto the world. Their biggest challenge is that the world loves this monster so much.

A Cure Larger than Life
The only way to save the world is to travel to the other side of the globe, and peek into one of Lewis Carroll and the Pillar’s darker pasts.

A Truth Madder Than Fiction
This time, the price of saving the world is too high. Alice will have to live with the consequences of the maddest logic of the world surrounding her.

Will Alice find who the Pillar really is? What does he want? Is she brave enough to handle the one Wonderland Monster she’d thought was a good friend? And even so, is the world ready the truth?

 EXCERPT: 

"Have you ever jumped out of a plane in a parachute, down to meet up with people who’d take selfies of your blood on their faces for breakfast?

I am doing it right now. And guess what, it’s nighttime, so not only am I free-falling, but I am also doing it in the dark. That’s what I call a bonus.

Throwing away the Pillar’s goggles, I hear the plane explode in midair above me.

Oh my god, this is for real!

“I’ve always wanted to blow up my employees,” the Pillar shouts all the way down. I am not sure how I can hear him. “But you’ll be fine. Just pull the red lever when I tell you to.”

In spite of all the madness, I feel unexpectedly fine up here in the air. Fine is an understatement. I feel euphoric. I want to feel like this every day. It’s ridiculous how much I am enjoying this, although I may get face-palmed by the earth in a few seconds.

Mary Ann, also known as Alice Wonder, 19 years old, dead and gone. I imagine the scripture on my grave says. But who cares? She was mad anyways.

Suddenly I realize that the madness hasn’t started yet. Not at all.

Down below, I can see something glittering. The vast land where we’re landing is nothing but an endless field of ridiculously over-sized mushrooms.

Big mushrooms growing everywhere, whitening up the black of the night.

LINKS:

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Cameron Jace is the bestselling author of the Grimm Diaries and Insanity series. A graduate of the college of Architecture, collector of out-of-print books, he is obsessed with the origins of folk tales and the mysterious storytellers who spread them. Three of his books made Amazon's Top 100 Customer Favorites in Kindle 2013 & Amazon's Top 100 kindle list. Cameron lives in California with his girlfriend. When he isn't writing or collecting books, he is playing music.

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AUTHORS LINKS:

http://cameronjace.blogspot.ca/

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/995289.Cameron_Jace

The Pharaoh's Cat

The Pharaoh’s Cat, narrated in the present tense by the cat himself, is the story of a free-spirited, quick-witted stray in ancient Egypt who suddenly finds himself with human powers joined to his feline nature.

The cat immediately captures the attention of the seventeen-year-old Pharaoh, making him laugh for the first time since his parents' death and is brought to live with him at the royal palace.

The cat also becomes friends with the High Priest of the god Amun-Ra and seeks his help in solving the mystery of his human powers and the supernatural manifestations that later plague him. He has an enemy in the Vizier—the Pharaoh's uncle and the second most powerful man in Egypt. The Vizier hates him for himself and even more for his relationship with the Pharaoh.

The cat participates in festivities at the royal palace, developing an insatiable appetite for good food, wine, and gossip. He later accompanies the Pharaoh on a trip through his kingdom, all the while renewing the Pharaoh’s ability to enjoy life and inspiring him to become a stronger leader.

Between the cat and the Pharaoh, a bond of love gradually forms which will determine Egypt's destiny.

The Pharaoh's Cat imaginatively blends Egyptology with comedy, drama, and even time travel--the cat and the High Priest will meet Elena, a resident of the twenty-first century and the daughter of a renowned Egyptologist.

REVIEW

First, I want to thank the author for giving me a copy of this book to review. I was sceptical at first since The Pharaoh’s Cat it did not fit into any genre that I would usually read but I am so happy that I accepted and will be rereading this book far into the future. You do not have to have an interest in Egypt or even cats for that matter, all you need is to be eager for a brilliant read. Second, I do not find it necessary in my review to recap the blurb or give away parts of the book, just to review about the author's writing ability.

One thing that is a constant throughout is humor. So if you only like drab books, this one is not for you. The humor mostly comes from the book's narrator, Wrappa-Hamen, a cat. Therefore, the prose is smooth and flows nicely. The plot is overflowing with events so that as a reader, there is never a dull moment. The adventures are non-stop and I assure you will never guess what is going to happen next everything fits perfectly into the story even the time travel as strange it seems. Whereas, things can be learned from this book such as who some of the Egyptian gods are and what they do, a sneak peek into the daily life in Egypt, and some of the rituals. Mostly this is a fun loving book that I could not find much wrong with but there is one part. That is when Wrappa-Hamen lost consciousness from being out in the snowy cold. I could not make sense of that. One last thing, I know you are not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but we all do it. The cover does not reflect how good the book is. It is a short book yet, you are not left wondering anything, but there is a sequel on the way!

Get a copy of this book to read, you will not be disappointed.

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Maria Luisa Lang was born in Rome, Italy, and lives in New York City. She has a degree in art from the City University of New York, and her artwork has been exhibited in New York galleries.

She often returns to Italy to visit her family. She has also stayed for extended periods in Bath and London. She loves all animals and is an amateur Egyptologist. Her love of cats and ancient Egypt inspired her to write two novels about them. The Pharaoh's Cat is her first novel. She has almost completed its sequel, The Lady of Mystery.