Guest post with Leyla Kader Dahm - Annabeth Neverending & Salted Caramel Ankh Cupcakes!

Today I have special treat! A guest post featuring author Leyla Kader Dahm!  To celebrate her new book, Annabeth Neverending, she's stopped by for a little guest baking session :)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Annabeth Neverending
by Leyla Kader Dahm
♦self-published
♦release date: December 15th, 2016
♦paperback, 307 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult

At first, teenager Annabeth Prescott thinks she’s found quite a deal when she talks down the price of an ankh pendant she discovers at a flea market. She soon wonders if the bauble is more than she's bargained for when she faints and glimpses images from a past life in ancient Egypt. 

The discovery coincides with another new find: Gabriel, a handsome young man who takes an interest in her. When she meets his twin brother C. J. at a Halloween party, she realizes they look exactly like two boys who figure prominently into her memories.

Does C. J. share the heroic qualities held by his past incarnation Sethe, her bodyguard when she was Princess Ana? Does Gabriel possess the same evil powers he wielded as Kha, the black sorcerer who sought her affection?

Love meets the supernatural in this gripping young adult paranormal romance. Readers with an interest in reincarnation, as well as ancient Egypt, will be drawn to its mystical mixture of history and hesitation as Annabeth sways between the two brothers. 

Will her reincarnated soulmate win out? Or will Kha finally find the way to her heart?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Wisconsin native Leyla Kader Dahm popped popcorn and dreamt of a career in show business while working in a movie theater during high school. The small-town Midwestern girl opted for the practical route and studied communications at Carroll College and Cornell University. But her life changed course dramatically when a temp agency placed her in a production and development gig at Miramax/Dimension Films.

Dahm went on to work as a script consultant for numerous production companies. She appeared in the acclaimed spoken word show Sit ‘N Spin and had her comedy feature spec, Due North, optioned by Michael Levy Enterprises. She sold her pitch, Survival Instinct, to Nickelodeon Original Movies. 

Dahm lives with her husband and children in Los Angeles, where she focuses on writing quality material for families and young adults.

GOODREADS  •  TWITTER  •  WEBSITE

Annabeth Neverending is a fun paranormal romance featuring past lives, magic, and tons of great Egyptian mythology.  To perfectly tie in with her book, Leyla has created these fun cupcakes. They sound delicious (salted caramel is a fave flavor of mine!) and she even instructs on how to make the cute little Ankh cupcake-toppers!  

ANNABETH’S ANKHTACULAR CUPCAKES

(CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH SALTED CARAMEL FROSTING)

1 3/4 c boiling water

6 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder

2 c sifted cake flour

2 ts baking soda

1/4 ts salt

10 oz unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 c firmly packed dark brown sugar

4 lg eggs

2 ts vanilla

THE CUPCAKES: 

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Put cupcake liners in tins.

2. In a medium bowl, pour the boiling water over the chocolate chips. Set aside for 5 minutes. Add the cocoa and stir until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. 

5. Add the flour mixture and half the chocolate mixture. Beat on low speed to combine, and then on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the remaining chocolate mixture and beat on low speed to combine.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Set the cupcake pans on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. 

YIELDS 36 CUPCAKES

THE SALTED CARAMEL FROSTING:

1 c firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 c butter

1/3 c whole milk

4 c powdered sugar, sifted

1 ts vanilla extract

1/2 ts sea salt

1. Bring first brown sugar and butter to a rolling boil in a 3 1/2-qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly.

2. Stir in milk, and return to a boil; remove from heat. Pour into bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer. 

3. Gradually beat in powdered sugar and vanilla at medium speed, using whisk attachment; beat 7 to 10 minutes or until thickened. 

4. Frost cupcakes.

THE ANKHS:

To make the ankh decorations, either use an ankh shaped candy mold like I did, or you can pipe ankh shapes with melted chocolate chips onto wax paper.

Becky's View: One by Leigh Ann Kopans

One by Leigh Ann Kopans
♦release date: June 11, 2013
♦paperback, 374 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: One Universe, book 1
♦source: from author for honest review

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves.

Review: In the ever-growing world of self-pubbed books, I've been lucky enough (and picky enough) to really find some outstanding gems. One is definitely one of those.  There are things I look for: an author who puts herself through all the same unending and hellish rewrites and edits that a traditionally published author would go through, one that goes through the trouble to get test readers and fellow authors and mentors to read it before letting her work go out into the world, and yes, one that gives us a gorgeous cover to draw us right in.  Yes, I'm shallow like that, but lets face it, lots of us YA readers (not all, of course) are suckers for some pretty cover eye-candy and when an author puts together a cover that looks like it came out of one of the Big 6, it shows she's done her homework as to what sells.  I found all this and a really intriguing synopsis with Leigh Ann Kopans' book and I couldn't wait to read it.

I blew through One; the story is immediately engaging, the main character's voice is easy-going and real, like talking to a friend. She has an inner dialogue that is hilariously honest (her first encounter with the character Leni is a perfect example!).  Merrin is bright and determined, something you know right away by her refusal to give up on the development of her powers. She's being sent to a "normal" high school because her superpower never fully developed and after a few rough first days, she meets Elias and his group. I love that she doesn't immediately fall all over him, but keeps her guard up, and slowly discovers that she can trust and connect with these three new friends.  Another thing I loved were the sibling relationships, both with Merrin and her younger twin brothers and Elias and his two older twin sisters.  I'm always drawn in by close but realistically-written bro and sis ties and in this case, they were actually an integral part of the story, which made it even better.

Superpowers can often strike me as cheesy, especially flying, but I was really happy with the way the author wrote them, almost as an extension of the character.  Merrin has this great inner struggle: she loves flying with Elias but she has an intense need to someday, somehow develop her own powers so that she didn't need to depend on him to fly---I felt this really defined her character and her actions throughout the story and kept this from really revolving solely around a love story, which is refreshing. It gave her character a good dose of stubbornness and back-bone. :)  Still, the love story was good and romantic, but I did find that somewhere in the middle, it was what slowed the pacing for me just a bit.

A great series-starter, full of action, betrayal, discovery, and heroic rescues.  I'm excited to see where this story goes next!

Find Leigh Ann Kopans online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase ONE: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Becky's View: Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh

Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh
♦publisher: CreateSpace
♦release date: July 24th, 2012
♦paperback, 388 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Last Year, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.

Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.

Then she meets Lucas, everything changes.

Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.

It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.

And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

Review:
Whispers in Autumn is the start of a great series, definitely one that I plan to continue.  It takes place in a world that has been taken over by a mysterious alien race and humans have been drained of some of their most basic emotions to keep them compliant. In this world, there is one girl who, not only is unaffected by the alien's emotion control, but for reasons yet unknown to her, she jumps seasons and places and it's completely beyond her control.  She goes to bed and it's winter in one town, and wakes to find herself in spring in another town.  She never knows how long she will stay or what triggers the traveling, but it's all she knows and she has learned to pick up where she left off.  But this time it's autumn in Conneticut, and things are starting to change.  She has always known there were others like her, thanks to an enigmatic note hidden in a pendant she has always had that tells her she is a Dissident.  For the first time in her sixteen years, she thinks she might have actually found someone like her.  

The story is told in a voice that has a kind of starkness and fear running that gives us a perfect feel for Althea, a character that has lived with a huge secret all her life among a society where her emotions could easily betray her and put her in mortal danger.  You can feel the constant worry and urgency in her voice as she tries to stay under the radar at school and at home. On top of everything else, she has a strange power over heat and fire when her emotions get out of her control...just another thing she has to hide away.  When she meets Lucas, he seems so much like her, like he is struggling to hide emotions and stay inconspicuous.  And when she finally touches him, she discovers he is cold---so cold he can turn water to ice. She is sure she's found someone like her.  Finally together, not only can they be themselves, but also try to find out who they are, why they travel, a find out exactly what it is the alien Others want from both them and the human race. 

It's an exciting and intense dystopian story that really stood out to me at a time when dystopians are flooding the YA market.  I loved the sincerity of the characters despite being in such extraordinary and dangerous circumstances. I found the plot compelling and intricate and unexpected.  I always tend to be drawn to stories that make me look at basic human nature as something to be thankful for---being able to cry and laugh and even feel loss and pain. This one did a little of that, too. The ending is gutsy and exciting, as danger creeps in all around them and some interesting things get revealed. It definitely leave you craving more!

A truly fantastic story...I can't wait to see what happens next in this series! 

 Find Trisha Leigh online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Whispers in Autumn:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Indiebound  •  Book Depository

Check out the rest of the series:

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

There 
by Denise Grover Swank

hitting shelves December 24th, 2012

description:
(WARNING! Major spoiler for book one in description! It's an awesome twist, so I don't want to ruin it for anyone who plans to read this series! You can highlight between the astericks to see the description but you've been warned!)
*Julia Phillips’ world is an alternate universe away.

Trapped in a land where government leaders want her dead, Julia is forced to run for her life with Evan and Reece, the two boys who brought her here. They’re on their own in a hostile landscape ruled by scavengers and thieves.

But Evan is battling a deadly infection, and Julia finds herself racing against time as she tries to find the medicine that will save his life. She and Reece find an unlikely ally—Jo, a girl they free after finding her captured in a bandits’ hideout.

As the four travel across the country, Julia has something else to worry about—her memories are slowly being replaced by the Julia of Evan and Reece’s world. Will they find a way to send Julia home before it’s too late? Or will Julia’s body and mind be trapped THERE?*

My thoughts:  Book one, HERE, was so good, one of the best self-pubbed books I've read in a long time.  You can check out my review here.  I'm really looking forward to seeing where the story goes after the exciting ending we were left with!
 

Becky's View: Here by Denise Grover Swank

Here by Denise Grover Swank
♦self published
♦released: November 11, 2011
♦paperback, 350 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from author for honest review

Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.

Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

Review:  Here is a great read. Period. It's a quick read that I tore through in 2 days.  The writing is tight and emotionally charged.  Main character Julia's personality and insecurities and dilemmas ring true.  And the story compels the reader to turn page after page out of compassion and an undeniable curiosity to find out what the heck is going on.  

I can't say too much about where the story goes without giving away the incredible twist, but Here unfolds in two main parts. In the beginning, you get to know Julia.  She is suffering from some major survivors guilt after a car accident where she was the driver and her best friend, Monica, didn't survive.  She has bizarre dreams where she is the one who died.  Her family is falling apart and questioning her sanity, and her academic life is quickly spiraling out of control. Then Evan steps into her life. While there is definitely a bit of cliche with the popular boy suddenly having eyes for the outcast, and the cruel popular mean girl who tortures her, I don't think it took away from the story.  When Evan suddenly takes an interest in her, you know something weird is up without the whole situation feeling unbelievable.   I like how Julia doesn't immediately fall in love with him---she remains completely suspicious of why he's helping her.  The foreshadowing was perfectly done---the author drops these perfect little hints that something is really off with Evan, but still leaves you wondering what is gong on with him---is he an alien? Is he a ghost?  Body snatcher, maybe? :)   I literally never saw the truth coming. His interest in her actually starts to tip a little onto the side of obsessive, which bothered me at first, but his intensity made perfect sense in the end.

Like I said, I can't say much more without giving it all away, but I will say that the second half of the book hits you with a shock, then twists into a fast-paced tale full of discovery, danger, excitement, and heartbreak.  It ends with a bang and left me ready to take on book 2.  I'm actually thankful I read it now, with the sequel's release just around the corner in December!

Whether you normally read self-pub books or not, I definitely recommend giving this a try. 

 

Find Denise Grover Swank online: Website  •  Facebook  •   Twitter

Purchase Here:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Book Depository  •  Indiebound

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Whispers in Autumn
by Trisha Leigh

publishing on July 24th, 2012

description:
In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.

Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.

The autumn she meets Lucas, everything changes.

Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.

It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.

And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

My thoughts: When I saw that flippin' gorgeous cover and read the alien-invaded synopsis, this immediately went onto my must-read wishlist! This sounds really awesome and the description has me intriqued...just what are they?? I can't wait to find out.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Darkness Falls
by Jessica Sorensen

releasing on March 17th, 2012

description:
When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across.
Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bit.
But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply?
The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires.
No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

My thoughts: Main character, Kayla, sounds like a bad-ass. Vampires are back to their rightful place as the baddies(lol). And the cover is awesome. Look at her face---that girl means business! Definitely looking forward to this one!

Quick looks at quick books! Ladybird, Ladybird & Intuition

Here's a few mini reviews for some quick reads I've come across lately!

Ladybird, Ladybird by Abra Ebner
published by Crimson Oak Publishing
release date: September 15, 2011
rating:


Review: Abra Ebner has given us a sweet story that really touches the heart. Main character, Sam, is a strong but a bit damaged. Her father blames her for taking away his wife, just by being born and he physically and emotionally abuses her. She is cursed with a power that makes her emotions manifest as a searing touch. Sam's biggest secret is that she communicates with her mother in the form of keys that open a magical box where cryptic messages appear. Then one day she connects with a boy who is also a bit of an outcast at school. Mysteriously, he is the only person she's ever met to be immune to her curse. I really enjoyed this story, full of surprises and an unexpected, but satisfying ending. It's a very fast read (a 90 page ebook, hardcover is 172 pages), but it said everything it needed to say. It was a pleasure to follow Sam's journey to find love and peace.

Cover thoughts: LOVE this cover. The ladybug, the trees, the fire---all very significant to the story.

Purchase: Amazon • BN.com


Intuition by J. Meyers
self-published
release date: November 3rd, 2011


Review: I left the rating off since this short story is really just a prequel to Intangible, which comes out in January. But with that said, I will tell you that I can't wait to pick up the next part of the story. In this 36 page glimpse, I got a good feel for the two main characters, twins Luke and Sera. I am completely intrigued with their relationship, their powers (she is a healer and he can see the future), the good they use their mysterious powers for, and of course, the daunting vision that Luke has that will no doubt catapult us into the main storyline of Intangible!

Cover thoughts: Love this one, too, because it shows both main characters. I actually kind of wish this had been used for the main story, Intangible!

(Download this one for free at Amazon or BN.com!)