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Hello, my name is Valorie. I have a Master's Degree in History and a license to teach-- I have been both university professor and public school teacher. Currently, I am a middle school social studies teacher. I love horror movies and spooky things. Every day is Halloween. I am also a passionate book blogger.

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Showing posts with label young adult romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young adult romance. Show all posts

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Blog Tour: Joined by Mara Gan



Joined
by Mara Gan
Genre: YA/NA Sci-fi Romance
Release Date: September 12th 2017
Inkspell Publishing

Summary: 
Duty and prophecy get in the way of everything.All I ever wanted todo was read my books, play my sports, and help people. Life and prophecy had other things in mind. Helping people is what I do; asan empath and semi-frequent telepath, I can easily sense and understand people's needs and emotions. Sometimes even before they do. Being able to read everyone’s thoughts and feelings all the time can drive me crazy with anxiety, but that moment when I can finally make someone’s life better makes everything worth it. Unfortunately, I’m also the next in line to rule the galaxy, I’m the only diplomat most planets will listen to, assassins try to kill meonan annoyingly regular basis, and a much-vaunted Prophecy has decreed that I’m going to die. Oh, and someone blew up my home planet. Kind of a lot to deal with, right? Too bad I just got another problem: a big, irritating, overbearing bodyguard with serious anger management issues. And I think I’m falling for him.


About the Author:
A Pacific North-westerner by birth and disposition, Mara has lived in Washington DC, Oregon, Japan, and most recently the beautiful Pacific Grove, California, before returning to her roots inSeattle. By day she teaches history to unsuspecting teenagers, and by night she writes books and travels to far-flung places. She loves to be with animals, read, play sports, and drink more London Fogs than is likely good for her. Connect with Mara on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maraganbooks

Blog Tour Organized by:



Saturday, July 29, 2017

Book Review: Goddesses Can Wait by Kim Baccellia




No More Goddesses (Myths and Mayhem #1) by Kim Baccellia


Published by Zumaya Thresholds

Published May 28th, 2013

Genres: YA/Fantasy/Mythology



Jordan Lake discovers an ancient bracelet in her grandmother’s house and uncovers a family mystery that links her favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn, a romantic movie, and an aunt she never knew. Jordan hopes the bracelet will bring her love. Instead, it brings one nightmare after another, unleashing Hathor, the Egyptian love goddess, who decides it’s fun to mess with the McKnight High School social scene. Jordan holds the key to vanquish Hathor, but will she figure out what it is in time to save her school, one of her best friends, and get a date to the Valentine’s Day dance?





Goddesses Can Wait (Myths and Mayhem #2) by Kim Baccellia
Genre: YA Fantasy





Jordan Lake, a fifteen-year-old Audrey Hepburn-olic who’s a magnet for goddesses, has a chance to go to Paris with her grandmother and BFF Selena Garza. Even though she senses something is off, she decides to make the trip.

But when she kisses a cute Parisian boy a la Roman Holiday, she switches bodies with Aphrodite and is sent to the Greek netherworld. She must enlist the help of the Greek god (in more ways than one) Ares then complete seven trials set by his sister Artemis in order to return home.

Except time is running out, and if she can’t get Aphrodite back to the Eiffel Tower by midnight, she’ll be stuck in Greek mythology forever.

Review of Goddesses Can Wait


Jordan is recovering from her harrowing adventure going head to head with the Egyptian goddess Hathor, and a trip to Paris is exactly what is needed.  After all, Paris is the most Audrey Hepburn place on earth.  Jordan and her best friend accompany Jordan’s grandmother across the Atlantic so that grandmother Lake can rediscover her past away from the grip of Hathor’s magic.  Unfortunately for Jordan, that could mean more enchanted objects and more goddesses.  And more goddesses is exactly what Jordan gets.

Jordan meets the man of her dreams, but she finds that instead of a summer fling, she experiences a Freaky Friday body swap with the Greek goddesses Aphrodite.  Meeting famous Greek mythological characters like the muses and Ares.  Jordan has to get her body back, but that means trapping a escaped goddess, and that is never easy.


I definitely felt Goddesses Can Wait met and matched the quality and fun of book one, No More Goddesses.  Since I prefer Greek/Roman mythology to all others, it really made me happy that Greek mythology took center stage.  Once again, great and quality research was done into Greek mythology because the characters made sense and did not lack from fine detail.  Ares wasn’t a caricature of the god, but rather seemed to be a realistic imagining of what the god Ares would be like.  Though I do wonder a bit why Aphrodite, a Greek goddess, would be blonde.  It was a pleasant addition that more than just the “popular” gods were presented.  I liked that Charon and the fates and muses were part of the story rather than the big name gods and goddesses.  I would love to read more of this series if books of this quality are being written and published.  What’s next?  Japanese goddesses?  An Aztec goddess?  I think we’ve established a theme of love, so the world’s an open book at this point.  I sincerely hope that more myths and mayhem novels are written, and more cultures/eras are incorporated because I just love how Kim Baccellia takes myths and abstract mythological characters and inserts them into real life.  I know she would continue to do excellent and entertaining writing!

About the Author:


When writing Goddesses Can Wait, Kim Baccellia watched almost all of Audrey Hepburn’s movies and learned to love this famous icon after watching and reading all she could about her. Two of her all-time favorite movies, Roman Holiday and Funny Face, are the inspiration for Jordan’s trip to Paris. What teen girl wouldn’t love to have a romantic moment on the Eiffel Tower?

A member of RWA, Kim is currently putting the finishing touches on a YA multicultural thriller. She lives in Southern California with her husband and son.


Read below for an excerpt from Goddesses Can Wait:
My fingers brushed against the wooden box. I pulled it out. A slight tingle vibrated through my fingers. Not unpleasant, still it felt as if I’d shocked myself. I gasped, dropping the box.

I winced, fearing I’d broken it. What would my grandmother do once she found out that I not only brought it overseas but now had damaged it? For all I knew it was invaluable.

I scanned the area, freaking out big time. Then to the corner I recognized the familiar woman on the mosaic top. Relieved, I bent over to pick it up and almost dropped it again. The blond woman blinked at me.
The Giveaway:

a signed copy of both books in the Myths & Mayhem series plus a cute Paris tote and some swag; open US only


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Book Review: Right Text, Wrong Number (Offsides, #1) by Natalie Decker



Title: Right Text, Wrong Number
Series: Offsides
Book Number: 1
Author: Natalie Decker
Genre: YA Romance
Finished: July 13, 2017

Layla seems to have everything: she is pretty, popular, a cheerleader, and has a gorgeous football playing boyfriend. Despite her dyslexia, her life is pretty good. Until she catches her boyfriend Adam cheating on her, which she finds out when she checks Adam’s phone and sees a sexy text from the girl. The next string of events in Layla’s life seal her fate and she is caught up in a complicated and not so serendipitous web of romance and uncertainty. Because Layla means to send a text to Adam’s mistress, but ends up mixing up the number—thanks dyslexia—and instead sends it to the one boy in school she can’t stand: Tyler. Their personalities clash when they are face to face, but they have an instant emotional connection via text message. Of course, neither knows who they are talking to. Tyler is the first to find out, cleverly using context clues. By that point Tyler knows it is too late: he ikes Layla. It takes Layla a bit longer to realize the man she is slowly falling in love with is the man she can’t stand. And then she falls in love with the real man she can’t stand. Now Layla feels torn: the man on the phone versus Tyler, not knowing they are the same man.

I’m way out of high school, so I probably don’t remember what it was like to be emotionally driven and hormonal. Teenagers can be pretty unreasonable. It seemed, to me, the rivalry between Layla and Tyler was a little too… unexplainably extreme. Many times I thought to myself, “well, that escalated too quickly.” Like, Tyler would say one comment and Layla would freak out and do things like smack his phone away.

The pacing was good and there was enough internal dialogue and development to satisfy any reader. Layla and Tyler went from a point of hating each other to liking each other and having to reconcile that with their former anathema at good speed, so the development of their feelings was believable and genuine. The ending was straight out of a John Hughes movie, complete with dance reveal wherein the girl walks in looking beautiful in her dress and they boy is rendered speechless before the two of them admit to each other that they are deeply and madly in love. I just with there was more power to the moment when Layla realized that the man on the phone was Tyler. It was reduced in the book to one short line of, “Oh my god” caliber, and then the story moved on. I would have liked for their to be bit more emotion, and more time dedicated to how Layla felt when she found out about Tyler. Because as it was, it felt anti-climactic; the buildup seemed drained by the quickness of the revelation.

This is a cute and solid young adult romance. A high school story of woe and love. You pity and root for Layla and Tyler, hoping the two of them get over their immense dislike for one another, that finding out about their text message tryst doesn’t tear them apart doesn’t end what they feel. You want them to end up together, and feel victorious when they do.