Thursday, June 4, 2020

Blog Tour with Excerpt + Giveaway: Rebel in the Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander @ZAlexanderBooks @RockstarBkTours


Rebel in the Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander
Series: The Library of Ever #2
Publication date: April 28th, 2020
Publisher: Imprint (Macmillan)
Pages: 224

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Illustration copyright © 2020 Matt Rockefeller

Rebel in the Library of Ever continues Zeno Alexander's acclaimed middle-grade fantasy series with a dangerous takeover of the magical Library as our heroine fights to make knowledge free for everyone.

Lenora returns to the magical Library--which holds every book ever known on its shelves. But she discovers the Library is under new management, its incredible rooms and corridors turned dark and sinister.

She quickly connects with a secret resistance that's trying to free knowledge from the shadows threatening it. Her new friends introduce her to an ancient lost city, hang-gliding, and mathematical beings larger than the universe itself. And they help her face the mysterious Board of new leaders--who are leading the Library into darkness.

Now it's up to Lenora to prove that knowledge is always more powerful than ignorance and fear.


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Praise for Rebel in the Library of Ever

"Further proof that librarians are mighty in all universes." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Zeno Alexander's The Library of Ever reads like someone mixed Neil Gaiman and Chris Grabenstein, then threw in an extra dash of charm. Reading it is like getting lost in an entire library full of books, and never wanting to leave!" -- James Riley, New York Times bestelling author of the Story Thieves series

"Full of whimsy and pluck, The Library of Ever is a total delight!" -- Wendy Mass, New York Times bestselling author


Excerpt
"Uh oh," said Lenora to Rosa. "I think we might have changed history." She was worried now, for in books, changing history was almost never good.

"Do not fear," replied Rosa. "We all change history with everything we do. This is why we should consider our actions carefully, as each one will affect the future to come. Should we join Lucy?"

For Lucy had gone straight to the table, where she joined a puzzled-looking librarian who was peering down at the assorted fragments, his chin in his hand, deep in thought. So deep that he had completely failed to notice two girls and an alien who had popped out of nowhere--or had they? Lenora was not sure how history changes worked exactly. But she was sure now that the objects on the table had been in the same box that Lucy had lost in the sea.

Giving up (for the moment) on figuring out how history changing worked, Lenora went over to the table, Rosa beside her. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me," she said to Cosmo (for that was the name on the librarian's badge).

Cosmo flinched and, looking up, suddenly noticed Lenora and the others. "Oh!" he said. "My apologies. I have been studying the Antikythera mechanism so intently that I frequently fail to notice things around me."

"That's all right," said Lenora. "So what exactly is that... Anti-kith-uh..."

"ant-ee-KITH-ur-uh," said Cosmo. "It is a small Greek island, near which this ancient mechanism was discovered, all broken up into pieces at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. It is estimated to have been lost to the waters around 100 BC."

"Sorry about that," said Lucy.


About the Author:
After emerging from the shadows of the past, his history yet to be fully explained, Zeno Alexander spent years exploring the world's libraries before settling down in his lavish underground bunker, where he regularly hosts exquisite dinner parties and tends to his collection of extinct plants. His friendship with the famous librarian, Lenora, has turned into a series of biographical works devoted to chronicling her adventures.








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Blog Tour with Excerpt + Giveaway: My Summer of Love and Misfortune by Lindsay Wong @lindsaymwong @RockstarBksTours


My Summer of Love and Misfortune by Lindsay Wong
Publication date: June 2nd, 2020
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 384

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
A novel about a Chinese-American teen who is thrust into the world of Beijing high society when she is sent away to spend the summer in China.

Iris Wang is having a bit of a rough start to her summer. In an attempt to snap her out of her funk, Iris's parents sent her away to visit family in Beijing, with the hopes that Iris will "reconnect with her culture" and "find herself." Iris resents her parents' high-handedness, but even she admits that this might be a good opportunity to hit the reset button.

Iris expects to eat a few dumplings, meet some of her family, and visit a tourist hotspot or two. What she doesn't expect is to meet a handsome Mandarin-language tutor named Frank and to be swept up in the ridiculous, opulent world of Beijing's wealthy elite, leading her to unexpected and extraordinary discoveries about her family, her future, and herself.


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Excerpt
1. Flower-Heart

I, Iris Wang, was born to be unlucky.

This is because I was born in the Year of the Tiger, and everyone in our Chinese family knows that girls born in Tiger Year are bad luck.

A flower-hearted tiger girl, such as years truly, means that I'm destined to pick loser boys and never listen to my parents. A flower-heart is someone who shows up hungover to her SATs and half-asses her college admission essays. She's also addicted to Starbucks lattes, expensive makeup, and super-fun parties.

But a tiger son born into the family is supposed to make a lot of money and bring honor to his family name. Total sexist bullshit, am I right? Maybe that superstition existed in China in the time of Confucius, but not in 21st century America, where Siri and iPhones practically run our lives.

Can I tell you an embarrassing and hideous secret?

When I was born, I was covered with thick, abundant hair all over my entire body, like I was an actual tiger cub. According to my parents, I even had coarse hairs growing on my chin, forehead and cheeks.

My mom likes to joke that I actually looked like a hairball spat out by a designer cat.

My dad says that he dreamed that my mom had given birth to a tiger cub two weeks before I was born, but he's deeply superstitious. He's the kind of guy who checks with a feng shui master before buying a painting for the house or making a new friend. My dad is born in the Year of the Goat, so he believes that anyone who isn't a farm animal, like his tiger daughter, i.e. me, brings him bad luck. Before he could propose to my mom, who is a Zodiac Dog, he consulted the Chinese almanac. Then he hired a Chinese monk to work out the math and interview his future bride.

When my mom told him she was going to give birth to a tiger, he was extremely worried. "A Dog and Goat for parents are no match for a tiger!" he exclaimed.

When he found out that his tiger cub was going to be a girl, I think he actually cried from anxiety.

Anyway, I was lucky that a lot of my facial hair fell off by kindergarten. But it doesn't explain the gross, extremely long mustache-like hairs that sometimes appear when I'm super stressed. These hairs sprout above my upper lip and even grow out of my ears. I swear, those hairs are like, my whiskers. Thank god for the invention of hair wax and affordable laser treatment.

Without deluxe Nair Wax-Ready Strips, I don't think I could ever be sent in public during times of great personal duress.

That, and I have to blame my bad luck on my sometimes too loving, overprotective parents. As soon as I was born, they took me to a famous fortune-teller who was visiting from China to ask her how to fix my life trajectory.

It all went wrong from the very beginning.

You see, the fortune teller, Madame Xing, found a funny-shaped mole under my right eye and said it looked like a teardrop. Like I was born to be permanently crying.

"This flower-heart is no good," she announced to my parents after a quick examination. My mom and dad were probably horrified and praying that they could send me back to the hospital and switch me for a Tiger Boy.

It also didn't help that I was one of those babies who was always crying and puking everywhere. My mom said that I just barfed on Madame Xing's mink fur and she got flustered and started cussing nonstop. My dad swears that this was bad luck, as it offended a powerful fortune-teller, who must have put a double curse on me.

After our first and only fortune-telling session, Madame Xing cryptically said, "Keep both eyes on your tiger daughter. If you take one eye off, she will bring shame on your family with her weak flower-heart."

Whatever she said was true. Since I was born, I guess I was destined to be a flower-heart. I have a weakness for terrible choices and terrible boys.

This brings me to my current situation.


About the Author:
Lindsay Wong's fearless writing and askew sense of humour chronicles adventures and disasters with copious amounts of playfulness and generosity.

She is the author of the #1 bestselling debut memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family, which won the 2019 Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Newsweek, CBC Books, the Globe and Mail, and the Quill and Quire. It was also a finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize and Canada Reads 2019.

In between Walmart parking lot holidays, Lindsay spends her time as a muscle for hire teaching writing workshops and editing manuscripts as a freelance editor.




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Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Blog Tour with Excerpt + Giveaway: Rock Hardest by M.J. Roberts @MJRobertswriter @InkSlingerPR


Rock Hardest by M.J. Roberts
Series: Chord Brothers #3
Publication date: February 22nd, 2019

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Cole's world shattered seventeen years ago. Now he's got one chance to get his life back on track. Cole starts his own band, hoping that going back to music will ease his tortured soul. There's only one problem--he can't find a drummer.

T.J. Casarez is stuck working in her family's restaurant until her cousin calls her to audition. Cole's not expecting a female drummer. Yet from the first beat they sizzle. But there's no way she's getting involved with a privileged, pretty boy.

She's been burned before, and dating a band member is a recipe for disaster.

Only... it's not just onstage chemistry that's on fire.

She has no idea what happened to make him into the man who tempts her to break all her rules. Then outside forces threaten to tear T.J. and Cole apart.

How are they going to rock the hardest and keep their hearts intact?


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Excerpt
COLE

I'm laying on my bed watching The Blue and The Kill, which, like everyone else on the planet, I've seen about twenty times. T. J. is taking an epically long shower. I know girls take long showers, but this is ridiculous. Maybe she uses showers to chill out the way she uses make-up to hide behind?

When she comes out, she's wearing a see-through black bra with red lace trim and boy short panties to match.

"Holy shit," I breathe. Then I stop breathing. When I breathe again, it's so ragged it's like claws scratching my throat.

"No," I say.

She smiles. It's evil, powerful, pure.

"Oooo, ooo, wicked woman," I sing.

"I'm completely in control of you," she half-sings back. It's more like she growl-rasp half-chants it. I recognize Dirt Cherry's I Got You By The Balls.

"You are..." I try to think of something that will work. "A... bad, bad girl." I finish, singing the old Fiona Apple tune.

She bursts out laughing.

"Luscious, you're trying to kill me. Go change."

"No."

"I'm only a man. Go change into some ugly, head-to-toe cover up flannel pajamas."

"No." She saunters closer.

"Please, baby."

She stops, turns around, and bends over.

Holy fuuuuuck.

"Don't," I growl. "You don't play fair. I'm serious now, Teej. Go change."

She laughs and takes a flying leap, jumping over me and landing on the bed by my side.

"Woman, you cannot lie next to me wearing that outfit."

"Too bad."

I tickle her. She shrieks.

"Stop! Stop. Cole, stop that! Uncle!" T. J. yells.

I stop. "God, you're beautiful," I whisper. I cup her face gently and kiss her. 

Her eyes dilate, go from molten chocolate to almost black.

"I've never had anyone stand up for me before." Her voice is choked, a soft rasp.

"I'll always stand up for you. Every word I said, I meant it."

Her hair is already wild, as if she'd thrashed against a pillow. I tuck a lock behind her ear.

She straddles me.

"T. No."

She rocks once, and I groan.

"Oh, I think yes," she says, and then gives a movie villain worthy grin. I'm the hero caught over boiling oil. T. J. rocks her hips against me, and I harden. "Absolutely yes."

I grab her hips to still her.

"I can't."

"You obviously can."

"I can't. Not unless you agree to date me."

"We're not going to date, Cole. The first rule of band-dom is you don't date anyone in the band. The guy dumps the girl, kicks her out, and bye-bye band. Not happening."

"Not always."

"Ninety-nine percent of the time. That's why it's a rule."

She kisses my neck. She reaches between us and strokes me through my pants. I grab her wrist and pull her away.

"Just this once," she says. "I want to say thank you."

"So, say it with words, not like this."

"But I want to say it like this."


About the Author:
Fan favorite M. J. Roberts is known for lovable characters, witty dialogue, exciting plot twists, fast-paced action that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and romance scenes that sizzle.

M. J. Roberts is the author of seventeen novels, including the popular Rock Hard: Chord Brothers series, and over twenty short stories; she's won six literary awards including the Literotica Summer Lovin' Contest 2015 for Risk Your Heart and the April 2019 gold medal from Literary Titans for Rock Hard: Chord Brothers, Book 1.

Roberts is also an editor, songwriter, audiobook narrator, and professor of creative writing. A modestly humble egomaniac with a penchant for superheroes, she's married to an awesome professional musician (aka The Rock and Roll God). Her 'I'm with the band' status and access to a bunch of real-life alpha bad boys means she's always saying 'Anything you say can and will appear in print. Names will be changed to protect the guilty.'




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