Review: ‘The Coldest Girl in Coldtown’ by Holly Black
Posted: February 3, 2015 Filed under: Reviews | Tags: aussie-owned, reviews, urban fantasy Leave a commentCheck out my review of “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” by Holly Black over at Aussie Owned and Read!
Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
Just when you think that vampires have…
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Cover reveal: ‘Shh!’ by Stacey Nash
Posted: February 3, 2015 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, book covers, new adult Leave a commentShh! (Oxley College #1)
by Stacey Nash
Release Date: 23 February 2015
Note from Cass: Stacey is one of my favourite writing peeps. I’ve read and loved three books by her, all sci-fi. Shh! is her first venture into contemporary, and I’m really excited to see what she will do in this new field. Plus the blurb is fascinating!
Nineteen-year-old Olivia Dean has the perfect reputation, the perfect boyfriend, and an increasingly perfect CV. She has it all, until Christian breaks up with her in public, calling her out as a self-gratifying sexoholic: the kind that plays solo. But Olivia doesn’t masturbate all night — the only thing she does is sleep … right?
Now all the boys on campus seem to want her attention for the absolutely wrong reason — including resident hottie, Logan Hays. He’s pulling out his best moves to gain her attention, so resisting his sexy charm is hard work. With rapidly slipping grades, a disturbingly lurid reputation and demanding parents, Olivia must discover the truth behind her rumoured sleeping problem. If she doesn’t, the perfect life she’s worked so hard for may slip away, including the one person who has Olivia breaking all her rules — Logan.
What do you do when you’re asleep?
***
Shh! is a story about acceptance, learning to trust and in turn love while facing life’s unexpected difficulties.
NB: This book is of a mild heat level, and contains no explicit sex scenes.
Pre-Order Links
(Shh! won’t be available on Amazon until release day)
Barnes & Noble│Kobo Books│iBooks
About the Author
Stacey Nash writes adventure filled stories for Young Adults in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. She loves to read and write books that have a lot of adventure, a good dose of danger, a smattering of romance, and KISSING! Hailing from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, she loves nothing more than immersing herself in the beauty and culture of the local area.
She also loves to blog is a co-founder and a contributor at Aussie Owned and Read, a blog designed for readers and writers of young adult and new adult fiction.
Her debut novel Forget Me Not released with HarperCollins Impulse in 2014 and was soon followed by the sequel, Remember Me. 2015 brings an Aussie set New Adult romance, the Oxley College Saga: Shh! and Wait!
Author Links
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook│Pinterest
Review: ‘Eleven Weeks’ by Lauren K. McKellar
Posted: January 15, 2015 Filed under: Reviews | Tags: aussie-owned, AWW, new adult, reviews 7 Comments
Eleven weeks.
Seven tequila shots.
Five siblings.
Two boys.
One heartbeat.
***
Stacey is good at pretending.
She pretends that the boy she’s in love with doesn’t exist.
She pretends that she’s happy to live and die in this small town.
She pretends that her life is carefree while her best friend’s world crumbles before her very eyes.
But Stacey’s got a secret …
And it’s going to ruin everything.
Note: Eleven Weeks comes out on 28 January. I was fortunate enough to get an ARC.
Stacey is Kate’s best friend in the first book in this series, The Problem With Crazy. During Eleven Weeks, we follow Stacey’s story during more or less the same period of time that The Problem With Crazy covers (I think Eleven Weeks starts a little earlier, but it ends at the same point).
Stacey always came across as a caring friend but also as a girl who likes to party. She was a cheerleader in high school and not particularly academically inclined. It’s not that she’s stupid, just that she found boys far more interesting than homework — the sort of character that in your stereotypical teen movie would be the mean girl. Except Stacey’s not the mean girl; she’s lovely, and totally supportive of Kate throughout her struggle with her father’s Huntington’s diagnosis (and her wait to find out whether she has it too).
When you find out what was going on during that same period of time — the things that Stacey is dealing with on her own, because she doesn’t want to burden her friend — you realise that Stacey is selfless almost to the point of self-destruction. There were times I wanted to just shake her and say tell your friend, but of course I knew she wouldn’t, because otherwise we’d have known about it in the first book. 😉 I imagine that in the third book, when Kate finds out what Stacey was hiding from her, she’s going to kill her.
As far as what Stacey’s big secret is, I won’t spill it here, but I think you can guess it pretty easily from the blurb. One thing that is misleading in the blurb is the bit about “two boys” — it makes it sound like there’s a love triangle in Eleven Weeks, which I’m happy to report there isn’t. There’s just Michael, the friend who clearly likes her but that Stacey thinks is too good for her. Michael is adorable.
I felt so bad for Stacey, despite her frustratingly stubborn determination to keep her secret for as long as possible. It becomes clear pretty quickly that, even though she was popular in school, she has almost no sense of self-worth. It’s the cause of her continued rejection of Michael, and of her lack of ambition. The way her family constantly runs her down, doing everything but describing her as a dumb blonde to her face, is simply awful. I wanted to beat her mother and sister around the head with a blunt object at several points.
Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.
Stacey is also quite naïve about certain things, but no more so than any other teenage girl in the same boat as her. Still, she tried her best to handle everything (once she got over the initial shock and denial).
Eleven Weeks has its teary moments, but I didn’t find it quite as soul-shattering as The Problem With Crazy, which broke me over and over. I’m really looking forward to the next book in the series, mostly because I really want to see Kate end up with Lee, and for everyone to live happily ever after! (Although given Lauren has form for breaking hearts, I’m a little nervous about that…)
Review: ‘Fight For Me’ by K. A. Last
Posted: January 10, 2015 Filed under: Reviews | Tags: aussie-owned, AWW, reviews, urban fantasy, young adult 1 Comment
“How can I fight for you when I don’t know what I’m fighting for?”
When Grace Tate became one of the fallen to protect a vampire, it got her into more trouble than she’d bargained for. She’s angry at Charlotte for hiding the truth, and with Josh living in the city and Seth missing, life is harder than ever.
It’s about to get a lot harder…
Grace doesn’t want to leave Hopetown Valley, but when Josh ignores her calls she decides to go and search for him. She doesn’t expect to run into Seth as well.
When she reaches the city, Grace learns that Charlotte is the most hunted vampire in Wide Island. The city vamps want her blood, and the angels are after her soul. Grace gets caught in the crossfire of a battle she never wanted, but to win one war, she has to fight another.
Torn between the one she gave up everything for, and the one who sacrificed everything for her, Grace has to face Charlotte, and the past, if she wants to fight for her future. But how can she fight for someone who doesn’t want to fight for her?
Every choice Grace makes becomes a battle, and in every battle someone has to die.
I read this book last October, but as it comes out next week — 17 January — now seems like a good time to post my review. That also means it counts towards my 2015 Aussie Women Writers challenge, and I’d already beaten the 2014 one. Winning!
Fight For Me is the sequel to Fall For Me, a series about a protection angel named Grace Tate and her human twin brother, Archer. Grace reincarnates over and over as a twin of the Tate boys, down the family line, an arangement that means she has a telepathic link with each one and lets them be an awesome vampire-hunting duo.
Everything’s going swimmingly till Charlotte shows up and drags Archer, Grace and Josh — Grace’s boyfriend — into her mess. Fight For Me picks up after the dust settles. Of course, the peace and quiet don’t last long.
While Fall For Me was a good read — fast-paced, with a plot twist at the end that made me gasp — Fight For Me is great. I think Kim really hit her mark with this one, maybe because the initial worldbuilding has been taken care of and she can really sink her teeth into the story. (See what I did there?)
In the first book I didn’t like Josh very much; he got super jealous of Grace and her love/hate relationship with fellow fallen angel Seth, and his attitude kind of bugged me. Fight For Me is dual POV between Grace and Josh, which worried me at first, but although Josh is clearly still very troubled in the second book (because spoilers), seeing it from his perspective made me understand him better. He’s still not my favourite — if I had to choose a boyfriend for Grace, I’d choose Seth. But Josh still redeemed himself somewhat in my eyes.
My favourite character in both this book and the previous one is Archer, Grace’s brother. He’s a total smartass, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is when Grace is getting a little overwrought. But at the same time he’s protective of her. He’s basically what Xander from Buffy would be if you made him a slayer too.
As with Fall For Me, Fight For Me had an awesome plot twist at the end, and again I didn’t see it coming, although in hindsight the clues were there. I love that!
Finally, the epilogue makes it clear there’s at least one more book in the series, which is always exciting. I love a trilogy!
The Aussie Women Writers challenge
Posted: January 6, 2015 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, AWW Leave a commentToday over at Aussie Owned and Read, I’m talking about the awesomeness that is the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Get you some!
The Australian Women Writers’ Challenge is part of the growing world-wide movement to raise awareness of excellent writing by women. It helps readers to challenge the subconscious stereotypes that govern our choice of books to read. We are excited to be entering our third year and hope that we can help you do something about this issue.
I’ve always read a more-than-average number of books by female writers — I’m guessing maybe a third of my reads were by women, although I don’t have any data to back that up — but almost all of them were by Americans or Brits. When I realised this, it left me scratching my head. I love reading book set in my own backyard, and I want to see a healthy Australian publishing industry (partly for selfish reasons, I admit), so why didn’t I read more Aussie books?! Eventually I realised that a lot…
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Australian Women Writers Challenge wrap up
Posted: December 19, 2014 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, AWW, reviews 3 Comments
The 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge was set up to help overcome gender bias in the reviewing of books by Australian women. The challenge encourages avid readers and book bloggers, male and female, Australian and non-Australian, to read and review books by Australian women throughout the year. You don’t have to be a writer to sign up. You can choose to read and review, or read only. – AWW
As I blogged earlier in the year, I was originally aiming to read and review six books by Australian Women Writers this year. But by August I’d already done seven…so I upped my goal to ten, and as I write this I’m at eleven. Yippee! (There is one more AWW book close to the top of my to be read pile, but I doubt I’ll get there this year. It can get me started on next year’s challenge!)
There’s actually a twelfth book I read this year, but I’m not posting the review till next January, closer to the book’s release date, so I’m not counting it here.
Here is the full list, with links. These are some very talented ladies, and if my reviews have helped spread the word at all, I’m pretty happy with that. I’m especially happy as, out of these eleven books, six of them are by my co-bloggers at Aussie Owned and Read. ❤
- Sleeper by S. M. Johnston (sadly this book is currently unavailable)
- Forget Me Not and Remember Me by Stacey Nash
- The Problem with Crazy by Lauren McKellar
- Immagica by K. A. Last
- Kiya: Mother of a King by Katie Hamstead
- Haze and Shimmer by Paula Weston
- Dancing on Knives by Kate Forsyth
- These Broken Stars by Aime Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
- Cassandra by Kerry Greenwood
Interview: Shelby C. Madison, Senior YA Acquisitions Editor
Posted: December 18, 2014 Filed under: On writing | Tags: aussie-owned, Interview, Turquoise Morning Press Leave a commentOn Tuesday at Aussie Owned and Read I interviewed Shelby C. Madison, the Senior YA Acquisitions Editor at Turquoise Morning Press. She’s the one that acquired the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy, so give her lots of love! ❤
In good news for those of you who might have a romance book (or one in another genre with romantic elements) looking for a publisher, Turquoise Morning press is opening to submissions on 1 January next year (and not just for YA!). Read more for details!
Today I’m interviewing Shelby C. Madison, the YA and NA editor at Turquoise Morning Press, or TMP. Shelby is the person that acquired my trilogy, so of course I luff her. ❤ If you’ve got a romance novel looking for a home, or a book in another genre, but with romantic elements, this may well be of interest to you!
TMP has just opened up its books to submissions from 1 January 2015. What sort of genre or genres are you looking for? Is there anything that is a no go?
I mainly deal with young adult, with the occasional new adult submission. As a whole, TMP looks for engaging stories with strong female protagonists. Within your non-traditional romance genres, like mystery or crime fiction, we like a romantic element to play out in the story. We find these characteristics engage our readers. Check out our submissions page for more…
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Cover reveal: ‘Loving Avery’ by Katie Hamstead
Posted: December 18, 2014 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, book covers Leave a commentTitle: Loving Avery (Bearville County Novella #1)
Author: Katie Hamstead
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date:
Artist: Jada D’Lee Designs
Add on Goodreads
Note from Cass: I delayed this cover reveal by a day. I’m sure Katie will understand.
The Bearville County Novella series follows on from Papina.
The Clark and Davis kids are grown up!
Follow Rhett, the Clark’s second son, who has loved Avery, the Davis’ only daughter, for as long as he can remember. But after her string of high school boyfriends, and Rhett getting beat up at prom, Rhett decides going to college is the best way to start over and forget Avery Davis.
Except Avery finally realizes she can’t live without him. But is it too late?
Get the novel, Papina, that starts the series: Amazon
About the Author
Born and raised in Australia, Katie’s early years of day dreaming in the “bush”, and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.
After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughter and their dog.
She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing.
Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports and be a good wife and mother. She now works as an Acquisitions Editor to help support her family. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.
Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Amazon | Goodreads
Cover reveal: ‘Eleven Weeks’ by Lauren McKellar
Posted: December 10, 2014 Filed under: On Books | Tags: aussie-owned, book covers 1 CommentI have been looking forward to this book for months, you guys. MONTHS. I’m so excited I can’t even. I have no evens.
Eleven Weeks, book two in the Crazy In Love series
Lauren K. McKellar
Genre: Contemporary Romance (New Adult)
Cover Design: KILA Designs
On sale: January, 2015
Seven shots
Five siblings
Two boys
One heartbeat …Stacey is good at pretending.
She pretends that the boy she’s in love with doesn’t exist.
She pretends that she’s happy to live and die in this small town.
She pretends that her life is carefree while her best friend’s world crumbles before her very eyes.
But Stacey’s got a secret …
And it’s going to ruin everything.
Excerpt
I wake to the sound of a drill-saw attempting to channel through a concrete pylon right next to my head.
“Why?” I grunt. Only it sounds more like “uggghhh”, even to my ears. Apparently being woken by drill-saw seriously impedes my ability to form words. I reach my hand out and slam something in front of me, presumably the drill-saw, most likely a clock radio. Regardless, the action makes the noise stop, thank hell.
Ugh. While the blast of noise has stopped, there’s still a ringing in my head of dizzy-making proportions. Not to mention that my tongue tastes like I’ve been eating road-kill. Yuck.
I squint one eye open and then scrunch my lid shut immediately as protection from the harsh yellow light coming in through the window framed by black-flowered curtains. What fresh hell is this? Who has opened my—
Shit.
I don’t have black-flowered curtains.
I inch open my lid at snail’s pace, this time preparing myself for the assault of light from the left of the room. Yep. Black floral curtains still there.
I open my eyes wider and take in more of the room in front of me. Aside from the window, there’s a black bedside table with a digital clock on the top of it, right next to a red lamp. The floor is covered in a shaggy-looking cream carpet, a black skirt and red lacy bra lying on top of it.
Oh, no. Please, please no …
I slowly raise the white sheet from my body. Yep, exactly as I’d suspected.
My black skirt and red bra.
This, of course, leaves only one question. But do I really want to look? Can I?
I rack my brain, trying to put together the pieces of the night before. There was the party at Joe’s. I’d gone there with Kate, because Dave and the band were playing. Michael. I saw Michael. Tequila. Lots of tequila.
I glanced down at my hand. Seven little lipstick lines mar its surface. One for each shot. At least I can remember that.
But how the hell did I get here? And, more importantly, where is here?
Giveaway
To celebrate the cover for Eleven Weeks, enter the competition today to win one of three $10AUD Amazon gift cards.
About Crazy in Love
The Crazy in Love series consists of three titles: The Problem With Crazy, Eleven Weeks and The Problem With Heartache.
The problem with crazy is that crazy, by itself, has no context. It can be good crazy, bad crazy … or crazy crazy—like it was when my ex-boyfriend sung about me on the radio.
Eighteen-year-old Kate couldn’t be more excited about finishing high school and spending the summer on tour with her boyfriend’s band. Her dad showing up drunk at graduation, however, is not exactly kicking things off on the right foot—and that’s before she finds out about his mystery illness, certain to end in death.
A mystery illness she is likely to inherit.
When your whole life goes from adventure and ecstasy to sad and suicidal, what’s the point? Not knowing who to love, and who to trust … where does it end?
The Problem With Crazy is a story about love and life; about overcoming obstacles, choosing to trust, and learning how to make the choices that will change your life forever.
Praise for The Problem With Crazy
“Heartbreaking, life-affirming—one of my all-time favourites.” — Glass Paper Ink Book Blog
“This story is beautiful, heartbreaking and will leave you thinking about it for days to follow.” — A.K.A. The Book Harlots Review
The Problem With Heartache will be released in February, 2015, and is the conclusion to Kate’s story.
About Lauren
Lauren K. McKellar is a writer and editor of fact and fiction. She has worked in publishing for more than eight years, and recently returned to her first love: writing books that make you feel.
Lauren loves to write for the Young and New Adult markets, and blogs with Aussie Owned and Read, as well as vlogging with the YA Rebels.
In her free time, Lauren enjoys long walks on the beach with her two super-cute dogs and her partner-in-crime/fiancé.
Find Lauren McKellar at her website, or on Twitter, Facebook or Amazon.
By Your Request: Query Success Stories and Why They Were Successful — AoR Ladies
Posted: December 2, 2014 Filed under: On writing | Tags: aussie-owned, Isla's Inheritance, pitches, queries, writing Leave a commentWant to see the query that landed me a contract with Turquoise Morning Press? I’m sharing it today over at Aussie Owned.
Recently I asked you, our readers, what you wanted to see. The answer I received was about querying successfully, how to do it, and examples of successful queries. So today, I have the ladies here, at AOaR telling their stories.
Cass!
First off, I should warn you that the query letter contains a minor spoiler for the book. (There was also a bigger one in there, but I’ve deleted it from the example; I don’t think it’s strictly necessary to illustrate the point.)
There are a few reasons why I think this query was successful. I followed a basic when/then structure in the pitch (the first two paragraphs). When Isla’s life starts to spin off the rails, then she must discover the truth about who she is and what she can do. It also outlines the stakes: Isla’s father is in danger and needs rescuing. (He’s such
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Cassandra Page 