Odd & True by Cat Winters {blog tour + guest post + giveaway!}

It's an exciting day! I'm always happy to host one of my absolutely favorite authors, Cat Winters, and her newest YA supernatural novel,

ODD & TRUE

Read on below to find out more about the book, learn more about sisters Odd & True and what they have in common with Cat and her own sister, and of course, don't forget to enter the tour-wide giveaway of three copies of the book!

• ABOUT THE BOOK•

Odd & True

by Cat Winters

♦publisher: Amulet Books

♦release date: September 12, 2017

♦hardcover, 368 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.

In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister—despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances—might, indeed, have magic after all.

*       *       *       *       *       *

Guest post with Cat Winters

5 Ways Odd & True are like Cat and Her Sister

ODD & TRUE was very much inspired by my relationship with my own sister, Carrie, who’s three years younger than me. It’s a work of fiction that’s not meant to be considered autobiographical, but my two protagonists, Odette and Trudchen, do, admittedly, share several things in common with Carrie and me.

Here are five examples:

1. Older sister Odette (Od) teaches younger sister Tudchen (Tru) how to read the future in tea leaves. Tea leaf readings and scenes of the sisters drinking tea appear throughout Odd & True. In real life, Carrie and I love visiting tearooms for special events, a pastime we’ve been enjoying since we found a tearoom tucked away in an antique shop in Escondido, California. In the opening chapter of ODD & TRUE, look for a nod to Escondido (which means “hidden” in Spanish) in the words of a magic spell.

2. Od has been telling Tru fairytales and legends since the week Tru was born, and she talks her sister into joining her in pretend adventures, even into their teenage years. I did the same thing with my sister when we were little, although I didn’t do so to hide the pain of our family’s secrets like Od. Thankfully, Carrie and I had a far less traumatic childhood than what my two protagonists endure, but I’ve always used stories as an escape from reality and a means of keeping us entertained.

3. For fun during their childhood, Od and Tru travel to neighboring farms and collect folktales and stories of monster sightings, which they catalog in a notebook. Od does the writing in the book, and Tru creates the illustrations. They call the book Odd & True Tales and plan to one day publish it. In real life, I wrote stories and poems all the time as a kid, and my sister would illustrate them. Our parents were often the recipients of cards that featured our joint creations (which probably weren’t as good as we thought they were). We always talked about one day publishing a book that I would write and she would illustrate.

4. Od and Tru grow up in a Southern California canyon populated by rattlesnakes and coyotes. They believe their mother is a monster slayer who protects them from diabolical creatures that prowl around after dark. My sister and I grew up in the hills of a Southern California suburb, and we heard coyotes at night and found various types of snakes in our yard, including the occasional rattlesnake. Our mom didn’t slay monsters, but when I was eight, we witnessed her climbing up to our roof with a hose to protect our house from a raging brushfire. She also fought off the black widow spiders that lived under our eaves, and she once even captured a snake that had slithered into our house.

5. Od and Tru are fiercely protective of each other and would slay monsters for each other. If I could do the same for my sister, I most definitely would.

Cat (left) and Carrie (right).

    *       *       *       *       *

Seriously, how super cute are they???  Thank you so, so much, Cat, for sharing these stories and this adorable photo with us!!

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Cat Winters’s critically acclaimed debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, was named a 2014 Morris Award Finalist, a 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, a 2013 Bram Stoker Award Nominee, and a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013. Her upcoming novels include The Cure for Dreaming (Amulet Books/Oct. 2014) and The Uninvited (William Morrow/2015), and she’s a contributor to the 2015 YA horror anthology Slasher Girls & Monster Boys. She lives in Portland, Oregon.  

WEBSITE  •  TWITTER  •  PINTEREST  •  GOODREADS

Purchase  ODD & TRUE:

 Indiebound   •  Amazon  •  Book Depository

And now for an amazing 

*GIVEAWAY*

3 winners will receive a finished copy of ODD & TRUE, US & CAN Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Rockstar Book Tour for ODD & TRUE!

Week One:

9/4/2017- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

9/5/2017- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

9/6/2017- YA and Wine- Guest Post

9/7/2017- Ex Libris- Review

9/8/2017- Novel Novice- Guest Post

Week Two:

9/11/2017- Take Me Away To A Great Read- Review

9/12/2017-Two Chicks on Books- Interview 

9/13/2017- Falling For YA- Review

9/14/2017- Stories & Sweeties- Guest Post

9/15/2017- Lisa Loves Literature- Review

The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones {blog tour review + giveaway}

 I'm so excited to be taking part in the Rockstar Book Tour for this entertaining & surprising book,

~THE HEARTS WE SOLD~

Today I'm sharing my thoughts on this book, and be sure to enter the tour-wide giveaway for three finished copies down below!

• ABOUT THE BOOK•

The Hearts We Sold 

by Emily Lloyd-Jones

♦pubslisher: Little, Brown BYR

♦release date: August 8th, 2017

♦hardcover, 400 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

♦stand-alone

♦source: from publisher for honest review

When Dee Moreno makes a deal with a demon—her heart in exchange for an escape from a disastrous home life—she finds the trade may have been more than she bargained for. And becoming “heartless” is only the beginning. What lies ahead is a nightmare far bigger, far more monstrous than anything she could have ever imagined.

With reality turned on its head, Dee has only a group of other deal-making teens to keep her grounded, including the charming but secretive James Lancer. And as something grows between them amid an otherworldy ordeal, Dee begins to wonder: Can she give someone her heart when it’s no longer hers to give?

•REVIEW•

The Hearts We Sold immediately drew me in to it's crazy world where Demons have revealed their presence on Earth and will happily offer up your wildest dreams in exchange for body parts.  Dee's home life has hit a boiling point and she's suddenly finds herself at risk for losing her only escape: her boarding school education.  In her desperation to find a way to pay for it, she seeks out a demon and is surprised to find he doesn't want an arm or a leg like other deals she's heard of, he wants her heart.

From the first time meeting the many characters in the "heartless" crew, I was curious to know more about each one, especially James, and the little flashbacks to their own deal-making day satisfied that.  I love that James isn't immediately this heart-throb that she can't take her eyes off of---Dee actually thinks he's a homeless person when they first meet.  And almost all of the characters take surprising turns throughout the story. They all have their little secrets and working for a demon will stretch them all their moral and emotional limits, bonding some of them closer together---and tearing some of them apart. 

The story itself takes some interesting turns---one in particular that I thought was completely unexpected and really turns the whole story on it's head. And while the twist made sense, it opened up a whole other slew of questions, some that were answered and others that left me scratching my head. But despite that, it still proved to be an entertaining ride, a sometimes-heartfelt, sometimes-funny story about a girl learning that she doesn't always have to stand on her own, learning when to cut ties for the better, and learning to let herself love. 

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Emily Lloyd-Jones grew up on a vineyard in rural Oregon, where she played in evergreen forests and learned to fear sheep. After graduating from Western Oregon University with an English degree, she enrolled in the publishing program at Rosemont College just outside of Philadelphia. She currently resides in Northern California, working in a bookstore by day and writing by night. 

WEBSITE  •  TWITTER  •  INSTAGRAM  •  GOODREADS

Purchase  THE HEARTS WE SOLD:

 Indiebound   •  Amazon  •  Book Depository

*GIVEAWAY*

3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE HEARTS WE SOLD, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to stop by all of the tour stops for more great reviews and features!

Week One:

8/7/2017- Owl Always Be Reading- Excerpt

8/8/2017- When Books Defy Gravity- Review

8/9/2017- YA Books Central- Interview

8/10/2017- Take Me Away To A Great Read- Review

8/11/2017- Angelic Book Reviews- Interview

Week Two:

8/14/2017- The Layaway Dragon- Review

8/15/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

8/16/2017- Book Briefs- Review

8/17/2017- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

8/18/2017- Stories & Sweeties- Review

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell {blog tour excerpt + giveaway!}

Hey everyone! Today I'm so excited to be a part of the Rock Star book tour for 

The Last Magician!!

Last year I was so blown away with Lisa Maxwell's spooky reimagined Peter Pan in Unhooked, so you can imagine my excitement at hearing her next would be an epic fantasy time-travel adventure!  Read on for more info about this amazing book, and don't forget to enter the tour-wide giveaway for a copy of the book and some sweet swag! :D

•ABOUT THE BOOK•

The Last Magician

by Lisa Maxwell

♦publisher: Simon Pulse

♦release date: July 18th, 2017

♦hardcover, 512 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

♦series, duology

Stop the Magician.
Steal the book.
Save the future.

In modern day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives.

Esta is a talented thief, and she's been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta's training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.

But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.

•EXCERPT•

Harte Darrigan cursed himself ten times over as he pushed his way through the crowd of The Devil’s Own, a smoke-filled boxing saloon on the Lower East Side named for the gang that ran it. The sound of bones crunching as fist met face caused the crowd to surge with an eagerness that made Harte’s pulse race and turned his resolve to mush.

The dive was filled with the type of people Harte had done everything he could to avoid becoming. They represented the most dangerous parts of humanity—if you could even call it that—south of Houston Street, the wide avenue that divided the haves from the have-nots and probably-never-wills. Harte himself might have been a liar and a con man, but at least he was an honest one. Or so he told himself. He’d risked everything to get out of Paul Kelly’s gang three years ago, and he didn’t want the life he’d managed to build for himself since then to get muddied by the never-ending war between the different factions that ruled lower Manhattan.

Yet there he was.

He shouldn’t have come. He was an idiot for agreeing to this meeting, a complete idiot to let Dolph Saunders goad him into being drawn back into this world with an impossible promise—freedom. A way out of the city. It was fool’s dream.

He must be a fool, because he knew what Dolph Saunders was capable of and had still agreed to meet him. He’d seen Dolph’s cruelty with his own eyes, and if Harte were smarter, he’d turn tail and leave before it was too late. . . .

But then a familiar voice was calling his name over the crowd, and he knew his chance had passed.

The kid approaching him was probably the skinniest, shortest guy in the room. He wore a pair of spectacles on the tip of his straight nose, and unlike most of the crowd that populated the Devil’s Own, he wasn’t dressed in the bright colors or flamboyant style that characterized the swells of the Bowery. Instead, the kid wore suspenders over a simple shirtwaist, which made him look like an overgrown newsboy. Unlike the barrel-chested men that curled themselves around their drinks after a long day of hard labor, Nibsy Lorcan had the air of someone who spent most of his time indoors poring over books.

“Harte Darrigan,” Nibsy said, giving a sharp nod of his head in greeting. “It’s good to see you again.”

“I wish I could say the same, Nibs.”

The kid tucked his hands into his pockets. “We were beginning to think you wouldn’t show.”

“Your boss made it sound like I’d be an idiot not to come and at least listen to what he had to say.”

Nibsy smiled genially. “No one could take you for an idiot, Darrigan.”

“Not sure I agree with you, Nibs, seeing as I’m here and all. Where’s Dolph anyway? Or did he send you to do his dirty work for him like usual?”

“He’s in back, waiting.” Nibsy’s eyes flickered over the barroom. “You know how he is.”

“Yeah,” Harte said. “I know exactly how he is. Just like I should have known better than to come here.”

He turned to go, but Nibs caught him by the arm. “You’re already here. Might as well listen to what he has to say.” He gave an aw-shucks shrug that Harte didn’t buy. “At least have a drink. Can’t argue with a free drink, now, can you?”

He glanced at the door at the back of the barroom.

Harte might have been an idiot, but he was a curious idiot. He couldn’t imagine what would have made Dolph desperate enough to ask for his help after the falling-out they’d had. And he wanted to know what would possess Dolph—a man much more likely to hold his secrets close—to make such wild promises.

“I’ll listen to what he has to say, but I don’t want any drink.”

Nibs shifted uneasily before recovering his affable-looking smile. “This way,” he said, leading Harte toward the back of the bar and through double saloon doors to a quieter private room.

It might have been years since Harte had seen him, but Dolph didn’t look all that different. Same lean, hard face anchored by a nose as sharp as a knife. Same shock of white in the front of his hair that he’d had since they were kids. Same calculating gleam in his icy eyes. Or at least in the eye Harte could see—the other was capped by a leather patch.

There were four others in the room. Harte recognized Viola Vaccarelli and Jianyu Lee, Dolph’s assassin and spy, respectively. The other two guys were unknowns. From their loud pants and tipped bowler hats, Harte guessed they were hired muscle, there in case things went south. Which meant that Dolph trusted Harte about as much as Harte trusted Dolph.

Fine. Maybe they’d been friends once, but it was better this way.

“Good to see you again, Dare,” Dolph said, using an old nickname Harte had long since given up. Harte didn’t miss that Dolph hadn’t offered his hand in greeting, only gripped the silver gorgon head on the top of his cane more tightly.

“Can’t say the feeling’s mutual.”

The two peacocks in the corner shifted, but Viola’s mouth only twitched. She didn’t reach for her knives and he wasn’t dead yet, so he must be safe for the moment.

“You want something to drink?” Dolph asked, settling himself back in his chair but not offering a seat to Harte.

“Let’s cut the bullshit, Dolph. Why’d you want to see me? You know I’m out of the game.”

“Not from what I’ve heard. Whatever freedom you pretend, Paul Kelly’s still got you on a leash, doesn’t he?”

“I’m not on anybody’s leash,” Harte said, his voice a warning. But he wasn’t surprised that Dolph knew the truth. He always did manage to find out the very things a person wanted to keep hidden. “And I know there’s no way you can do what you hinted at. Getting out of the city? I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“Then why did you come?” Dolph asked.

“Hell if I know,” Harte said. He realized he was crushing the brim of his hat and forced himself to relax his fist.

Dolph’s eye gleamed. “You never could resist a challenge, could you?”

“Maybe I wanted to see if the rumors about you were true,” he said coldly. “If you’d really lost it after Leena, like everybody said.”

“I don’t talk about that.” Dolph’s expression went fierce, even as his face went a little gray. “Nobody talks about that if they want to keep breathing.”

“I bet they don’t,” Harte said. He shook his head. “This was a mistake.” He turned to go, but Jianyu stepped in front of the door, blocking his way. “Call him off, Dolph.”

“I’ve got a proposition for you,” Dolph said, ignoring Harte’s command.

“I’m not interested.” He turned his attention to Jianyu. “I bet your uncle’s real proud of you right about now, isn’t he? He must love you being a lapdog for that one there.”

Everyone knew that Jianyu Lee was the nephew of Tom Lee, the leader of the On Leong Tong over in Chinatown. The kid could have had his own turf, maybe even run his own crew, but here he was working for Dolph. But that was the thing about Dolph Saunders—he had this way of pulling people in. Even people who should’ve had some brains.

Jianyu just smiled darkly, an expression that warned Harte not to push.

“I said call him off, Dolph,” Harte said again, trying not to let his nerves show. He might be a fool, but he wasn’t stupid enough not to realize how dangerous his position was.

“I think you’d be interested if you gave me five minutes,” Dolph said. “Or I can always have one of my boys convince you.”

“Threats?” Harte looked back over his shoulder. “That doesn’t seem your style, old man.”

With a handful of years on Harte, Dolph couldn’t have been older than his mid-twenties. But with the streak of white hair and the way he’d been born to lead, Dolph had always seemed even older. Once, “old man” had been a term of endearment between friends. Not anymore. Now Harte slung the nickname like an insult.

Dolph’s mouth curved to acknowledge the slight, but he didn’t otherwise react. “Never used to be,” he admitted. “But it turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.” 

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep, Unhooked, & The Last Magician (Simon Pulse, Spring 2017). When she's not writing books, she's an English professor at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.

 Website | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Pre-Order The Last Magician:

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound

*GIVEAWAY*

Enter below for a chance to win a gorgeous finished copy of 

The Last Magician + swag!

(US only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to follow along with the rest of the blog tour for more great reviews & inside info about 

THE LAST MAGICIAN!

WEEK ONE:

7/10/2017- YA and Wine- Interview

7/11/2017- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

7/12/2017- Novel Novice- Guest Post

7/13/2017- What the Cat Read- Review

7/14/2017- Stories & Sweeties- Excerpt

WEEK TWO:

7/17/2017- NovelKnight- Review

7/18/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

7/19/2017- Forever 17 Books- Review

7/20/2017- Wishful Endings- Interview

7/21/2017- Ohana Reads- Review

Cold Summer by Gwen Cole {blog tour review + giveaway}

Hey, all! I'm hosting today's stop on the Rockstar Book tour for 

Cold Summer by Gwen Cole

Haven't checked this one out yet? Well, I'm here to tell you..YOU NEED TO. 

Check out my full review below, and be sure to make it to the end of this post, where you can enter to win one of the 7, count em', SEVEN copies of Cold Summer being given away.

Cold Summer

by Gwen Cole

♦publisher: Sky Pony Press

♦release date: May 2nd, 2017
♦hardcover, 256 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Today, he’s a high school dropout with no future.

Tomorrow, he’s a soldier in World War II.

Kale Jackson has spent years trying to control his time-traveling ability but hasn't had much luck. One day he lives in 1945, fighting in the war as a sharpshooter and helplessly watching soldiers—friends—die. Then the next day, he’s back in the present, where WWII has bled into his modern life in the form of PTSD, straining his relationship with his father and the few friends he has left. Every day it becomes harder to hide his battle wounds, both physical and mental, from the past.

When the ex-girl-next-door, Harper, moves back to town, thoughts of what could be if only he had a normal life begin to haunt him. Harper reminds him of the person he was before the PTSD, which helps anchor him to the present. With practice, maybe Kale could remain in the present permanently and never step foot on a battlefield again. Maybe he can have the normal life he craves.

But then Harper finds Kale’s name in a historical article—and he’s listed as a casualty of the war. Is Kale’s death inevitable? Does this mean that, one of these days, when Kale travels to the past, he may not come back?

Kale knows now that he must learn to control his time-traveling ability to save himself and his chance at a life with Harper. Otherwise, he’ll be killed in a time where he doesn’t belong by a bullet that was never meant for him.

Review: I had a feeling when I saw this synopsis that I might enjoy this one. But I had no idea just how much I would end up loving it.  It was beautiful and real and heart-wrenching and hopeful...so many feels. And tears. I don't cry often at books, sometimes there is one moment in a book that will really take me by the heart and bring me to tears---in Cold Summer there were a few. 

There were so many elements that drew me into this one:  a potential romance with years and years of history behind it, broken families working to rebuild themselves, good supportive friendships, great complex characters trying to find their places in a confusing world.  Not to say that they were perfect---oh, they definitely had their flawed moments and times where I just wanted to wring their necks and scream "Set your pride aside already, it will make things better for everyone!". But I understood how they might feel the way they did and my heart just went out to them. 

The time travel aspect was perfectly done. Time travel can be tricky and can trip over itself if it tries to over-analyze the hows and why's if you ask me.  Kale's strange ability just "is" and the story was less about the time travel itself and more about how it affected his relationship with the people who cared about him. 

I can't attest to how well or accurately PTSD was portrayed here as I have no experience with it, but it was definitely heart-wrenching to see a young man go through it, especially in a situation where it was fairly impossible for him to seek help.  

Cold Summer reads as a beautiful contemporary story with a bit of a sci-fi twist and I thought it was the perfect way to tell Harper and Kale's story, two teens who've known eachother all their lives falling in love in extraordinary circumstances. At it's heart, its a story of how each person finds their own meaning of family, home, and love. 

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Gwen Cole writes Young Adult books and her debut novel, COLD SUMMER, will be released in the spring of 2017 with Sky Pony Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing.

She grew up in upstate New York, moved to Virginia where she did not graduate college, and worked a various number of jobs including pharmacy technician, meat clerk, ranch hand, and a receiving specialist at Target. She may or may not have written a number of books while working at certain jobs.

At the age of eighteen, Gwen played bass in a hardcore band and later married the lead guitarist. She can also play piano, guitar, and wishes she could play the cello. Her favorite place to vacation is Wyoming, where she gets to wear a cowboy hat and pretend she actually is one.

Gwen now lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, daughter, and very large dog, where she longs to live in the country again.

WEBSITE  •  TWITTER  •  INSTAGRAM  •  GOODREADS

Purchase COLD SUMMER: 

 Indiebound   •  Amazon  •   Book Depository

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit ALL the tour stops!

Week One:

4/24/2017- Brittany's Book Rambles- Interview

4/25/2017- Just Commonly- Review

4/26/2017- Literary Meanderings- Guest Post

4/27/2017- Stories & Sweeties- Review

4/28/2017- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

Week Two:

5/1/2017- Novel Novice - Review

5/2/2017- Fiction Fare- Guest Post

5/3/2017- Pretty Deadly Reviews- Review

5/4/2017- YA Books Central- Interview

5/5/2017- Owl Always Be Reading- Review

Heartstone by Elle Katharine White {Blog tour excerpt + Giveaway!}

Welcome, welcome to my stop on the Heartstone Blog Tour! Today I'm featuring an except from debut author Elle Katharine White's fantasy adventure, Heartstone (a Pride and Prejudice retelling with dragons!) along with a chance to snag one of three copies in the tour-wide giveaway! Read on!

Heartstone

by Elle Katharine White

♦publisher: Harper Voyager

♦release date: January 17, 2017

♦paperback, 352 pages

A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay—and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers . . . something far more sinister than gryphons.

It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.

~Excerpt~

The dragon’s wings stretched the length of the field, and talons the size of plowshares scoured the earth where it landed. Pewter scales shone with a bluish-gold luster where the sun hit its sides, and I longed for a canvas and some paints to capture the sight, my fear forgotten.

A broad-shouldered figure leapt from the dragon’s back.

“You there!”

The Rider’s voice tore me away from the strokes of my mental paintbrush. I reddened as he approached and tried to wipe some of the mud from my dress, succeeding only in smudging it farther down the front. The contrast between us grew clearer—and more painful—with each step. Tooled in gold across the Rider’s breastplate was the rampant figure of a dragon, the symbol of House Daired, and on the hilt of the sword slung over his shoulder I caught the bloodred glimmer of a lamia’s heartstone. As my younger sister Mari once told me, the serpentine, scythe-wielding monsters called lamias were one of the Tekari, sworn foes of humankind. A lamia’s heartstone would be a worthy pommel gem for a Daired’s blade.

My gaze trailed from his heartstone to his face, and a new chill ran through me, though this one wasn’t so much fear as a healthy dose of embarrassment.

Blast. He would be handsome.

Of course, he could’ve looked like the wrong side of a troll and his appearance would’ve still made me blush. By rights this Daired shouldn’t have been here at all. Merybourne Manor sat at the heart of a poor county, the smallest in the island kingdom of Arle. Lord Merybourne ruled over farmers, craftspeople, and the occasional merchant, but no one rich or distinguished, and it’d taken us months to scrounge enough to meet the bond-price for a band of Riders.

My father, the Manor clerk and an old friend of Lord Merybourne, had spent weeks running the sums to see how we could afford it. Five Riders, five mounts, and food and lodging for a fort-night, in return for which they’d hunt down and slay the gryphon horde that plagued us. At twenty silver dragonbacks per Rider, the commission cost the Manor a total of one hundred dragonbacks. 

Or, by my more practical calculation, the entire income of Merybourne Manor in a year.

*      *      *      *       *       *    

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Elle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY, where she learned valuable life skills like how to clear a snowy driveway in under twenty minutes (a lot easier than you think) and how to cheer for the perennial underdog (a lot harder than you think).

When she's not writing she spends her time reading, drinking absurd amounts of tea, having strong feelings about fictional characters, and doing her best to live with no regrets.

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Connect with her on Facebook at @ellewhite.author, or witness the hilarious spectacle that is a writer contending with the 140-character limit on Twitter at @elle_k_writes.

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Purchase The Graces:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon

*GIVEAWAY*

Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance at one of 3 finished copies !

•US mailing address only please

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to drop by all the other tour stops for Heartstone!

Week One:

1/9/2017- YA Book Nerd- Interview         

1/10/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland - Review

1/11/2017- Novel Novice- Guest Post     

1/12/2017- What the Cat Read- Review 

1/13/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Interview        

Week Two:

1/16/2017- Fiction Fare - Review

1/17/2017- The Eater of Books!- Excerpt

1/18/2017- History from a Woman's Perspective- Review             

1/19/2017- Stories & Sweeties- Excerpt

1/20/2017- The Book Nut- Review