Double Cover Reveal

When Spencer Hill Press opened for submissions in December, we received many queries along with a few pages of the book to whet our appetites.

I am happy to announce the newest members of the SHP family along with a first look at their book covers.

And without further ado:

Touch of Death
Jodi Marshall isn't sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she's in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she's being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he's not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she's part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi's deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn't difficult enough, Jodi discovers she's the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can't figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

Title: Touch of Death

Author: Kelly Hashway

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press (www.SpencerHillPress.com)

ISBN: 978-1-937053-30-7

Release Date: January 2013

List Price: $12.95

Formats: Trade Paperback, e-book

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

PODs

Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul.

After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters.

Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

Title: PODs

Author: Michelle Pickett

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press (www.SpencerHillPress.com)

ISBN: 978-1-937053-28-4

Release Date: June 2013

List Price: $12.95

Formats: Trade Paperback, e-book

Genres: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Thriller

 

 

We would love to congratulate and welcome Kelly and Michelle to the Spencer Hill Press family.

The covers are amazing, and the stories are something definitely going to be worth the wait!

And we would love to hear what you think about the covers and the upcoming new releases.

Happy Reading!

IMM Take 70

All of us here at Books Complete Me are so excited to be a part of the awesome list of blogs who participate in the "In My Mailbox" meme. In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren so make sure you check out her book blog for a list of many of the blogs participating.

Here is what we received this week:

Kendra:

Purchased: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Sentimal Bulls#*t by Magenta Periwinkle
Enthralled edited by Melissa Marr & Kelley Armstrong

Leave us a comment below letting us know what you received this week or which of the books above are on your TBR list.

Burns Day/Night Celebration and giveaway: These are a few of my favorite things... about Scotland

Today, in Scotland, as like any other January 25, they are celebrating the birthday of their national poet Robert Burns. BCM is proud to be part of the first annual Team Kilt Burns Day/Night celebration hosted by authors Jeri Smith-Ready and Cyndi Tefft.

When you think of Scotland, what is the first thing you think of? Don't deny it, kilts are high on your list. I know they are definitely high on mine. Who doesn't love a good man in a kilt.

 This pic basically gives you the idea of what the outfit would look like. We are a YA blog after all. (Can anyone else totally imagine Zachary Moore from the Shade series wearing this to the prom? *swoon*)

But I digress. 

Another one of my favorite things about Scotland is the language. Granted, their language isn't much different than ours, but at the same time it is. The brogue associated with the Sottish language is a pleasure to the ear, and enough to make a Scot sound completely otherworldly. 

Along with the accent goes the words and phrases. Every culture, nationality, groups, have their own sayings/phrases words.

An example of some of my favorites:

• Dinnae teach yer Granny tae suck eggs! - Don't try to teach someone something they already know.
• Is the cat deid? - Has the cat died? Means your trousers are a bit short - like a flag flying at half mast.
• Honkin', Hummin', Howlin' - Bad smell

Just to name a few. If anyone is interested in seeing where I found these, and others, go to the Discover Scotland website, and while there, take a look around and find out more about Scotland.

Another thing people think of when they hear Scotland is bagpipes. And while they are not my favorite thing to listen to for long periods of time, they do have a certain something. They produce a very distinctive sound that can never be mistaken for anything else.

What I want to know is, what is your favorite thing about Scotland? Is it the kilts? Sean Connery? Haggis?

We have a copy of The Complete Illustrated Poems, Songs, and Ballads of Robert Burns.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us what your favorite thing about/from Scotland. It could be a person, clothing, saying, food, etc. Include your name and email address, and the winner will be contacted for a mailing address. Open to US only. No P.O. Boxes please. Giveaway ends 11:59 p.m. Sunday January 29, 2012.

And don't forget to check out the rest of the blogs involved in today's Burns Day/Night festivities. You can find information HERE.

Waiting on Wednesday: Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready

 

Welcome to Waiting on Wednesday! Waiting on Wednesday a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating.

The book we are waiting for this week is:

 

 

 Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready

Release date: May 1, 2012

The story (from jerismithready.com):

No other love has burned so bright

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.
As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced that she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves...even if that means betraying her own heart.

 

 Shine is the final installment of the Shade trilogy. Will the mystery of the Shift finally be revealed? Will we find out the relevance of Zach's and Aura's birthdays? And most importantly, will we get to find out what Zach has under his kilt? We'll have to wait until May 1 to find out.

 

Teaser Tuesday: Shade and Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read;
• Open your book 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 TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers. 

For this week's teaser, I am going to take a step outside of our usual parameters. With tomorrow being the Scottish holiday Burns Day, and BCM being part of the Burns Day festivities a long with a number of other blogs, and hosted by authors Jeri Smith-Ready (in honor of Zach, the hot Scot from her Shade series) and Cyndi Tefft (in honor of Aiden MacRae from Between), I am going to be taking teasers from the first two books in the Shade series: Shade and Shift. I will, however, do it the same way, picking a quote from a random page. I could post the most epic quote, but I wouldn't be able to narrow it down, plus, I don't want to get too spoilery.

This will be a nice introduction into the Shade series for those of you who haven't yet read it. And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? This series is amazing! Go out there now and get these books!

Shade:

"Soon I heard the rap of hard-soled shoes above the kitchen's ceiling. The thought of facing real DMP agents made my knees shake. Gina had told me nightmare tales of people getting 'dumped,' detained for questioning. I didn't want to share one iota of what I knew--about myself, about my mom, about Zachary."  Page 206

Shift:

"Was every bit of Shift wierdness connected to that one fact? Like Zachary being the ultimate red with the anti-ghost powers of the Last? Or me being the ultimate violet with the pro-ghost powers of the First?" Page 285

 

RENEGADE Cover Reveal & Giveaway

We are SO excited to be part of today's cover reveal for J.A. Souders debut novel, RENEGADE. The cover is gorgeous and it sounds like an awesome read. 

So....would you like to see the cover already? 

Okay, okay.....

Here it is:

Isn't it beautiful? I love it! 

Here is the official book summary:

 

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she's believed that everything is perfect.  Her world. Her people. The law.  

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into Elysium's secluded little world, Evelyn comes to a startling realization: Everything she knows is a lie.

Her memories have been altered.

Her mind and body aren't under her own control. And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb...and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

 

About the author:  

 

J.A. Souders was born in the heartland with an overactive imagination and an over abundance of curiosity that was always getting her into trouble.  She first began writing at the age of 13, when she moved to Florida and not only befriended the monsters under the bed, but created worlds for them to play together.  

    Because she never grew up, she decided she’d put her imaginary friends to work and started writing.  She still lives in the land of sunshine and palm trees with her husband and their two children and is an active member of the RWA, YARWA, SFWA, and SCBWI.  

    She is represented by Natalie Lakosil of the Bradford Literary Agency.  Her debut book, RENEGADE, surfaces Fall 2012 from Tor Teen.

 

***Giveaway Rules***

• J.A. Souders is giving away one ARC of RENEGADE when the become available and any one YA novel already available from The Book Depository. 
• Open Internationally.
• You must visit each of the six blogs who posted the puzzle pieces on Friday, January 20th. Each blog posted a word that you will need to collect. Collect all six words and unscramble them for an extra entry. The links for those six blogs are below.
• Woven Strands 
  Writer's Ally
  The Oasis  
  Fire and Ice 
  Confessions of a Bookaholic
  Jessie Harrell-The Daily Harrell 
• The form below is the same on each site revealing the cover today, so YOU ONLY NEED TO FILL OUT THE FORM ONCE.
• J.A. Souders will answer your questions in the comments, but please be sure you fill out the form to enter. No entries will be accepted through the comments.
• Giveaway runs through Monday, January 30th. The correct tagline will be announced with the contest winner on the author's blog on January 30th.  
• You can get extra entries (for a grand total of 5 entries) for spreading the word: tweeting using the #renegade hashtag, blogging, facebooking, etc.
• Fill out the form below to enter.

Also, be sure to stop by the other awesome blogs that are revealing the RENEGADE cover today. Here's a list for you:

Reading Teen 

Mundie Moms 

A Simple Love of Reading 

Stuck in Books  

Review: Falling in Between by Devon Ashley

Falling in Between by Devon Ashley
Expected publication: February 14th 2012
Genre: YA

The Story: Finally! A private conversation. And all I had to do was throw myself off a cliff, drown in a pond in my undies and let him put his hands on my breasts to bring me back to life. Yay me! (yeah, that’s sarcasm)

Yep, that pretty much sums up the most craptastic night of Jenna Baker’s life. She drowns after jumping off a cliff, meets a hotty named Chance in the pearlescent in-between and is brought back to life by her soon-to-be boyfriend Robert.

Just when things start to move forward with Robert, the guy she'd been crushing on for a year now, in walks the man of her dreams – literally. Chance suddenly appears in her dream every time she closes her eyes. So it's Robert by day and Chance by night. One in the real world and one in the dream world. What could possibly go wrong?

Absolutely nothing – until she comes face to face with the guy she met in the in-between, and realizes her romantic rendezvous with Chance may be more than just her imagination.

Note: Jenna's coming of age story is a little edgy. There is mild language and some sexual content.


My Review: Squee!! I really loved this book. Jenna tries to get some courage in her, to talk to her crush - Robert, and she ends up almost killing herself in the process. But who rescues her? Robert! Though not before she met Chance. Then it's seeing Robert during the daytime and Chance by nighttime. That is, until she starts to wonder which one is real.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It's a refreshing change on the whole romance level! Totally worth buying, and guess what, it comes out Feburary 14th! What could be better?



Devon is hosting a giveaway for a doodlegraph! Check it out here!

IMM: take 69

All of us here at Books Complete Me are so excited to be a part of the awesome list of blogs who participate in the "In My Mailbox" meme. In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren so make sure you check out her book blog for a list of many of the blogs participating. 

Here is what we received this week:

Kendra

Borrowed from the library:

Stolen by Lucy Christopher (audio book)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (audio book)

Nicole

Received:

The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland

Cindy

Received from publishers:

Trafficked by Kim Purcess

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Purchased:

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Vesper by Jeff Sampson

Ten Things We Did (and probably shouldn't have) by Sarah Mlynowski

Destined by Jessie Harnell

Leave us a comment below letting us know what you received this week or which of the books above are on your TBR list.

Happy Reading!

The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards - This or That & Giveaway

I got to ask Jasmine Richards, author of The Book of Wonders, a bunch of "This or That" questions. Here are her responses!

Pandora Radio or CD player - Pandora Radio



DSLR or point and shoot - DSLR



Dress up or Comfy clothes - comfy



Eating out or staying in - eating out



Cash or credit - cash



eBooks or paper copies - paper copies



Handmade cards or store bought - Handmade



Broadway or movies - movies



Fish or Beef - Beef



Pepsi or Coke - Coke



Lots of makeup or all natural - Natural



Republican or Democrat - Democrat



Public or Private school - Public



Puffs or Klenex - klenex



Jetted tub or oval tub - I don’t even know what it means[we don’t use this phrase in the UK] but jetted sounds awesome! (That's a good choice, oval tub is just the shape of it, but Jetted, its like a hottub, but you can bathe in it!)

*****Giveaway Info*****

~The Book of Wonders swag pack: includes a bookmark, book plate and a necklace ~International
~Will end on 1/27/12 at Midnight MST
~Leave email in comments, and will have 48hrs to respond with address once contacted

And the winner is...

 

Drum roll please....

And the winner of the copy of Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder (as chosen by Random.org) is:

*  *  *  Adelina R.  *  *  *

Congrats! We hope you enjoy the book!

Thanks to everyone who entered!