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giveaway

Giveaway: Map of Fates by Maggie Hall

December 14, 2015 by Sana Leave a Comment

If you’ve already read The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, you probably don’t need to be told that its gorgeous, thrilling, sexy-as-hell sequel, Map of Fates, releases in three months. What you do need is an Advance Reader’s Copy of it, and some signed swag, and this is where you can get it!

(Photo: Sofia Embid)
To get your hands on a beautiful ARC, signed postcard, signed bookmark, and tattoos, you have to make the same tough choice as every Conspiracy fan:

Team Jack?
Or
Team Stellan?
Pick one of the below pictures (with thanks to creator Diana Sousa!) and share it – on Instagram and Twitter – with the hashtag #MapOfMates and tell us where you’d want to be swept away on an all-expenses-paid trip!

On January 2, five ARC winners will be selected, and yes, the giveaway is international!

    // 1 #TeamJack from Instagram
    // 1 #TeamStellan from Instagram
    // 1 #TeamJack from Twitter
    // 1 #TeamStellan from Twitter
    // 1 from either team who has one of the pics as their Twitter avatar

        Haven’t read The Conspiracy of Us yet? Buy it now, and/or enter to win it (until 12/17) here! (Prefer paperback? That releases on February 2nd!) (Whether you enter or not, please spread the word; Maggie’s an amazing, generous, and talented member of the YA community, and due to emergency circumstances, she’s unable to promote her own books right now, so please give all the support you can!) (But, like, you should enter, because these books are pretty damn good.) 

        Winners will be notified on January 2, 2016. See you on #MapOfMates!

        Interview + Giveaway: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Blog Tour

        April 6, 2015 by Sana 13 Comments

        I’m so excited to be a part of #SimonVs blog tour because it’s one of my favorite books that I’ll be pushing everyone to read. Harry Potter and Elliot Smith obsessed Oreo-fiend, Simon Spier is my favorite this year. He’s also a hopeless romantic who can’t help his hilarious typos in flirty emails to Blue. I’m plan to reread it forever and ever and cannot wait to hold the beautiful hardcover in my hands.

        ABOUT THE BOOK

        Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
        young adult lgbtq contemporary romance published by Balzer + Bray on 7 April 2015

        Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
        With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

        Add Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda on Goodreads
        Buy it on Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | IndieBound

        THE INTERVIEW

        I’m so incredibly happy to have Becky on the blog today because I adore her! Case in point, we both had one day to get this post ready and she was so fast with her replies to my emails despite being so busy. Basically, she’s such an amazing person.

        It says in your bio that you write ‘very nerdy contemporary young adult fiction.’ How did the very nerdy part came to be?

        I LOVE this question, because the fact that you even have to ask is extremely flattering. I think I will always write about nerds, because I can’t even begin to imagine what goes inside the brains of cool people. Fact: Simon and his friends are nerds, but my own nerdiness reaches a whole other level.

        As a clinical psychologist, how has your experience of working with teenagers influenced you as a writer?

        I think it’s a mixed bag! Being a psychologist gave me the opportunity to get to know so many incredible teens, and I think it helped re-acclimate me to how teens talk, think, and interact. That being said, balancing the two roles has been challenging at times. I went from having basically no online footprint to being a public figure, and that alone has been a huge transition. Furthermore, in my role as a psychologist, teens have trusted me with really precious information, and it’s critically important that I never mine that for my fiction. Beyond that, I try to do everything within my power to make sure my former clients never feel vulnerable that their confidentiality could be breached. I won’t let it happen – that’s nonnegotiable – but I still worry that they think it might!

        Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is about so many things so this might be very hard for you to answer, but what’s your favorite part about it?

        Hmm…I think my favorite part of this book is the love story. I loved writing the email chapters. I think I got a little lost in Simon and Blue’s relationship at times! And I feel like I’ve gotten to know them both so well over the past two years that it’s really special to see them get their happy ending. I truly believe that every Simon deserves to eat infinite Oreos and make out with the grammar nerd of his dreams.

        Drunk Simon or Oreo eater Simon?

        That is, in fact, a trick question, because Simon is ALWAYS Oreo eater Simon (and Drunk Simon is especially Oreo eater Simon). I will resolve this dilemma by linking to this very informative Buzzfeed. Why, yes, I will be making these for my launch party.

        Do you know you probably gave us all a heart attack with Martin’s involvement in Simon’s life?

        My work here is done!!! 😀

        It’s awesome to see so many diverse YA coming out this year! What’s your take on that?

        I’m completely thrilled by it. It’s incredibly inspiring to see editors acquiring such a range of diverse titles, and especially to see the reading community responding to them with such enthusiasm and positivity. In my imprint (Harper’s Balzer + Bray), I can name four 2015 debuts off the top of my head that star LGBTQIA+ characters, and one of their huge contemporary titles this year stars a Turkish-American girl. I think this shift is so incredibly important and so desperately needed – and, thanks to influencers like the We Need Diverse Books team, I expect it will only continue to improve. Of course, it’s also important to acknowledge how much work there is left to do in challenging our tendency to default to white, straight, cis, male, non-disabled characters and authors. Nonetheless, I’m excited to be a part of that work.

        Are you currently working on anything?

        I am working on something! I’ve been in edits and rewrites for the second book of my two-book deal with Balzer + Bray, which I would describe as a loose companion book to SIMON. I’m hesitant to reveal much about it, since I keep making such dramatic changes as I rewrite. I’m hopeful that we can expect to see it on shelves in 2016.

        Lastly, everyone should know that you are – ?

        Beyond excited to launch this book. Incredibly, ridiculously grateful to all of those who have supported me along the way. Thrilled to be a part of this community. Looking forward to what comes next!
        Becky Albertalli can be found at
        | Website | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram |

        THE GIVEAWAY

        We may never now what the emboss on an Oreo cookie means but that surely isn’t stopping Simon or us from enjoying one or a whole pack of it. One lucky person will win a copy of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda along with a package of Oreos. (Please do visit my policies page before entering!)

        a Rafflecopter giveaway

        Additionally, you can also win a personalized hardcover of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda if you tweet how you eat your Oreos or Instagram a picture using the hashtag #SimonVs by April 6th. Yes, today’s the last day so get going!

        Interview: Lauren Miller + Giveaway

        December 5, 2013 by Sana 7 Comments

        I only read Parallel last month and loved every bit of it. Seriously guys, it’s heartwarming, mindblowing and edge-of-the-seat nervous. So I thought why not interview the author herself and give away a copy of Parallel because awesome author and a must-read debut.
        THE INTERVIEW

        It says in your bio that you decided to write Parallel during the first 100 days of your baby’s life. You even blogged about it. How was the whole experience?

        It was an experience like none other in my life! Super intense, but doubly rewarding. For those who don’t know, I called the whole experiment “Embracing the Detour” (the detour being motherhood – my husband and I weren’t planning to try for kids for several more years when we found out I was pregnant, and the pregnancy had me panicked that I’d never make the transition to full time writer with a baby at home). The point was, yes, to write a book, but it was also to see whether I could turn what most people say is the most draining period of a woman’s life into the most creatively fruitful of mine. And it worked! It was remarkable, really, how productive I was able to be, simply because I didn’t allow myself an alternative. I wish I could have kept that up after the 100 days was over! 🙂
        You are a practicing lawyer, what sparked your interest in science?

        I’ve always been drawn to stories that have a supernatural element, but that respect readers enough to give them a WHY. Science, for me, is the most satisfying “why,” because it feels plausible

        I feel that at its core, Parallel answers one of the big what if questions. How did it end up with parallel universes and paths that change over and over?
        When I started writing Parallel, I knew I wanted to give Abby a “do-over” of sorts, and so I set out to find a scientific (or, at least, pseudo-scientific!) explanation for how a girl might get to experience the consequences of the path she didn’t take. I knew I didn’t want it to be a time travel story — Abby going back in time to make a different choice. I wanted her to wake up in the life she would’ve had if she’d made a different choice without her actually making that different choice. Entangled parallel worlds is where I ended up.

        I should confess that my heart stopped every time Abby’s path changed. How did you keep track of all that was happening in the book?
        With a giant white board! I’ll admit, it was a little crazy keeping track of it, but it was also a lot of fun! I loved working the cause and effect out in my head, trying to imagine how parallel Abby’s actions might play out in Abby’s life.
        Abby and her parallel are merely living in different points of time but their destiny is fixed. Do you believe that destiny transcends space and time?
        I believe that destiny is about becoming the person you were created to be — it’s not about finding the right path, it’s about finding the right YOU. In Parallel, my two Abby’s are not the same person, so they have different “destinies” — they are meant to become very different people, with different lives and different loves, not because they live in different worlds but because they are different souls.

        Parallel portrays a strong friendship between Abby and Caitlin. How did that come to be?
        I am a strong believer in — and proponent of — female friendships, especially among young women. There is so much focus in our culture on romance, when we should be paying at least as much attention to friendship, since these relationships can be as — if not more — formative. Our friends help shape who we become, so it was important to me that Abby have someone great by her side. Caitlin was very easy for me to write, because I based her my own best friend!

        Despite being a sci-fi, Parallel reads like a contemporary. Was this your intention?
        Absolutely. As much as I love science, I’ve never been a sci-fi reader. I’ve always gravitated toward contemporary stories that have some mind-bendy twist, so when I started writing I set out to write that. I want my books to appeal to readers who, like me, don’t read a lot of sci-fi.

        The ending of Parallel is suggestive, did you always knew that you were going to go for a not-so-definite ending or it’s just something that happened?
        Oh, I knew the story had to end the way it did. But, in my mind, it’s as definite as any ending could be. At the end of any story, the characters are left to live out their lives. In Parallel, I wanted to put Abby back in the driver’s seat of her life at the end of the story, but I also wanted to leave her on the hook. I wanted to make her work for the happily-ever-after she wants, to force her to put what she’s learned about the power of her choices into practice. If she wants to end up with Josh, she’ll have to do two things: make good, forward-thinking decisions while at the same time not trying to micro-manage things. She’ll have to find the balance between action and trust. Will she and Josh end up together? I hope so. But in the end, it’s up to Abby not to screw it up. 🙂 The other thing that was important to me was to give Josh the opportunity to fall in love with the “real” Abby. Live, in real time. For most of the book, his love for her comes from his memories of his parallel’s experiences with parallel Abby.
        As a writer, what comes first when you’re writing a book?
        The themes. For Parallel, it was the power of our choices and the interplay between fate and free will. For Free to Fall, it was the trade-off between “happiness” and freedom. Once these themes take root in my mind, a story begins to take shape. Then I move towards an outline.
        How would you describe you upcoming book, Free to Fall?
        We’re calling it a “puzzler,” a term I adore, because it just fits so well. Free to Fall is a puzzle! It’s set in the near-future, a point in history at which two things are true: (1) everyone’s lives are orchestrated by an app called Lux that makes all their decisions for them, and (2) the proverbial “whisper within” — that inner voice that guides you along — has been labeled a psychosis that should silenced with medication. My protagonist, Rory, is a 16-year-old girl who begins to discover that there is more to the story when it comes to both of these things. I’m super excited about it!

        Lastly, everyone should know that you are – ?
        Working on a third book! It’s still super secret, but I’m having a lot of fun writing it, and can’t wait to see what it becomes. I mentioned that I start my books with themes – the theme of this one is Beauty with a capital B.
        Thank you!

        Lauren Miller can be found at
        | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram |
        Add Parallel and Free to Fall on Goodreads
        THE GIVEAWAY
        I love Parallel so much that I’m giving you guys a chance to win a Kindle copy of it. Good luck and please see Terms and Conditions in the widget below before entering!
        a Rafflecopter giveaway

        Review: Focus by Alyssa Rose Ivy Blog Tour + Giveaway

        February 22, 2013 by Sana 3 Comments

        Focus | The Crescent Chronicles | #2 | Alyssa Rose Ivy | NA Paranormal | Self | 23 January 2013 | 268 (aARC)

        ABOUT THE BOOK 
        Freshman year of college is hard even when you’re not tied to the future king of a supernatural society.
        Allie dives into college head first with Hailey as her roommate and the city of New Orleans as her backyard. As things within The Society heat up, Allie realizes that whether she’s with Levi or not, she’s in far too deep to turn back.

        THE RATING

        THE REVIEW
        Focus begins a little after the events of Flight as Allie and Hailey are settling in Tulane as freshmen. It felt good to be treated to Allie’s feistiness again and see her stand up for herself. However, as normal as she’d like her college life to be, it isn’t surprising to see Hailey, Owen, Jared and even Levi accompanying her to classes. At first Allie thinks it’s just a Pterons thing but things are much more serious than Levi let on.
        As Allie is transitioning into her college and dorm life and making new friends, Levi is hard at work trying to make up to her. But Allie’s indecisiveness is as apparent as it was in Flight. It’s actually relieving to know where it’s coming from because we know it’s not that Allie doesn’t want to be with Levi. She needs time and Levi respects that even though he keeps trying.
        What I really like about Focus is how Levi and Allie work on their relationship. As a reader, you get that they belong with each other but it’s not easy to guess how they’re going to work out the kinks. It’s obvious that Levi is a control freak and possessive as hell. But then Allie is hotheaded and stubborn like anything. So it gets really interesting to read about the sexual tension as well as their little arguments.
        Focus gives more insight into the secondary characters as well and it felt good to know more about Jared and Owen. Allie’s and Hailey’s friendship also deepens more but I was sad when Jess didn’t make much of an appearance. However, it is understandable because both of them have started college in different states. Allie knows she’s in for good but is having a hard time as any so she immerses herself in her study. Allie also attends a few meetings of The Society and gets to see more of the hierarchy, even though she doesn’t truly understand its dynamics or her role in it.
        Focus moved at a regular pace; though at times I found myself wishing that things would get more exciting somehow. It isn’t that there isn’t much action, but it has more to do with the fact that even though there is an underlying buzz that Pterons are being threatened; it’s more of the same. Though I will admit, Focus is much hotter than I was expecting it to be. There’s a lot of teasing going on and we get to see a sexier side of Allie, too. Focus ends in a much similar way to Flight meaning pretty unexpectedly but it left me wanting more because it was a pretty unpredictable end. Found has to be an earth-shattering end to a remarkable series. I look forward to reading it!

        THE QUOTES

        “Break ups aren’t fair. Why does only one person have power? We both agreed to start dating. Why do you get to make the decision to end it? Shouldn’t it be a joint decision too?”

        “Relationships aren’t a democracy. Not everyone gets an equal vote.” 

        ABOUT THE AUTHOR
        Alyssa Rose Ivy is a Young Adult and New Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.

        Alyssa Rose Ivy can be found at 

        | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

        Buy Focus (The Crescent Chronicles, #2)
        | Amazon | Amazon (Kindle) | B&N | Smashwords | 


        THE GIVEAWAY
        The following giveaway is part of the blog tour. Enter away and good luck!
        a Rafflecopter giveaway
        Thanks to Alyssa Rose Ivy and ATOMR for providing me a copy of Focus for review.

        Giveaway: The Boys of Summer by C.J. Duggan‏

        February 18, 2013 by Sana 4 Comments

        Swoon-worthy. Check. Summer romance. Check. Forbidden love. Check. Heartbreaks. Check. This book has a little bit of everything so why not win a copy for yourself?
        ABOUT THE BOOK
        The Boys of Summer | The Summer, #1 | C.J. Duggan | New Adult, Contemporary Romance | Self | 17 December 2012 | 321 (eBook)
        Quiet, 17-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summer time job.
        She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before dreaded Year 12 begins.
        To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fire works at the Onslow show, and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets.
        How did she let her friends talk her into working?
        After first shift disasters, rude wealthy tourists, and a taunting ex boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come from working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer, and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer of working expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love, and heartbreaking chaos.
        All with the one boy she has never been able to forget. 
        It will be a summer she will always remember. 
        Warning: Sexual references and occasional coarse language.

        THE EXCERPT

             Moon rays filtered through the windshield, giving the cabin an otherworldly glow.

             Toby’s perfect teeth were illuminated when he smiled. “You know, you are the worst winner!” He shook his head. “Ever since you won the bet, you’ve been apologising. Just go with it, enjoy it, because I assure you, next time …” – he leaned closer – “… you will not be the winner.” He pulled back, smug.

             I curved a brow. “Next time?”

             He nodded. “I fully intend to redeem myself.”

             “Want a chance to rebuild your shattered ego, do you? I bet you’re itching to fix my bike so you can be rid of me once and for all.” I shouldered him gently, teasing him as I would Adam. And then I realised what I had done; I had treated him like my friends. He looked down at his shoulder, then up at me. His eyes shadowed with untold meanings that I couldn’t read.

             “What if I didn’t want to fix your bike?” he said in all seriousness.

             “Why, is my company so stimulating that you can’t bear the thought of being without me?” I teased nervously.

             I was aiming for light and airy, but something must have gone wrong with my delivery because Toby’s face went blank. He looked out into the lights of Onslow, ran his tongue over his bottom lip and sighed.

        ABOUT THE AUTHOR
        C.J. is Australia’s newest enthusiastic addition to the Indie market of self publishing. Paving the way by writing her debut novel, a YA Romance ‘The Boys of Summer’. A coming of age love story set in a mythical small Australian Town in the mid 90’s. 

        Juggling the pressures of a stressful day job, or be it the many realms of mundane reality. C.J. has earned a name for her ballistic imagination and witty banter in her blog. Offering an honest, refreshing account with her daily rants of the world and her personal journey in being an aspiring author.

        C.J. Duggan can be found at 

        | Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

        Buy The Boys of Summer (The Summer, #1)
        | Amazon | Amazon (Kindle) | B&N | Smashwords |
        THE GIVEAWAY
        Enter below to win an eBook copy of The Boys of Summer in the international giveaway below. Enter away!

        a Rafflecopter giveaway

        Thanks to ATOMR for the promo event.
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