Series Highlight: Bad Boys by A. O. Peart, plus a giveaway!

Today I am featuring the Almost Bad Boys series by the lovely A. O. Peart...a mix of New Adult romance and suspense with a fair whack of humor, these books are the perfect, light read. If you'd like to win an e-book and some swag, please enter the giveaway below.

Would you take another shot at love? Or just settle on a friend with benefits? 

Their heartbreaking past will move you. Their passion will make you blush. Their antics will make you laugh out loud. 

Twenty-five-year-old Natalie Davenport lugs substantial baggage. One boyfriend after the next has been a total disaster, leaving Natalie distrustful toward the male population in general. So when Colin Hampton crosses her path, she’s cautious. Her heart (and some other body parts!) nudges her to go for it, while her head wants her to run for the hills. 

Colin is one of those gorgeous guys who attract women, no matter the age or marital status. With a successful career at a popular Seattle radio station, hard body, and charming personality, he is the complete package. But something dark lurks in the corners of his soul; some murky experience that has changed him—maybe for the better, but maybe for the worse. 

Will he steal her heart and stomp over it like other guys did? 

Will she let him into her heavily fortified world despite herself? 

Or will they settle somewhere in the middle—establishing the emotional boundaries to protect them from falling in love?

AMAZON PURCHASE LINK - only 99c!!

How far would you go to protect the one you love? 

The terrors of Colin’s past are revealed and accepted by Natalie. Her doubts about letting him into her life are finally disbanded and replaced by a sense of security and commitment. But Natalie doesn’t know that Colin’s past hides more dark secrets unknown even to him. 

When a delusional psychopath threatens Colin’s life, things quickly become complicated. Natalie’s stubborn character and desire to kick ass won’t let her step aside and allow the authorities to handle the danger. She gets herself tangled up with street hoodlums, befriends a Russian mobster’s high-maintenance girlfriend, and becomes expert at picking locks and hiding evidence.

AMAZON PURCHASE LINK - only 99c!!

Where would you draw the line between love and trust? 

When Colin’s feisty great grandma Helga mysteriously disappears, Natalie and the gun-toting Svetlana rush to the rescue. With the help of Russian mafia goons and Natalie’s girlfriends, they get more than they bargained for. Natalie invites trouble into her life all over again. She could find herself questioned by the police, or worse, her relationship with Colin could become rickety once more. 

And so the race begins: with grandma Helga on the loose, Colin turns to the police for help, and Natalie is a stiletto heel tip outside of the law. But being in the wrong has never felt so vindicated. 

AMAZON PURCHASE LINK - only 99c!!

*****

A.O. (Angela) Peart is the author of the New Adult and Young Adult fiction novels, including NA/adult crossover contemporary romantic comedy series Almost Bad Boys. She writes in multiple adult, NA, and YA genres, including contemporary, paranormal, urban fantasy, sci-fi, and short stories.

Angela was born and raised in Poland. She now lives in the Seattle area with her family and a chronically curious cat. 
She describes herself as European born, American by choice.

Website/blog: www.angelapeart.com

Newsletter signup: http://eepurl.com/o6syT

Release Day Promo signup: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAngelaOrlowskiPeart/app_100265896690345

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.: com/author/show/6469948.Angela_Orlowski_Peart

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAngelaOrlowskiPeart

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Angela_Peart

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COVER REVEAL: Forever Fredless by Suzy Turner

It's always a pleasure to support a fellow author that I love and respect. Suzy Turner's latest novel is coming out soon and her new cover is revealed this weekend!!

Forever Fredless by Suzy Turner

Kate Robinson has spent the past two decades yearning to find her soul mate, the boy she found and then lost during a family holiday. Shortly after her twenty-eighth birthday, however, she inherits a fortune from an old family friend and becomes something of an overnight celebrity. Can her new-found fame lead her to him after all this time?

Forever Fredless will be available from online bookstores from October 2013.

For more details about Suzy and her books, visit: 

http://suzyturner.com

http://suzyturner.blogspot.com

http://facebook.com/suzyturnerbooks

http://twitter.com/@suzy_turner

http://pinterest.com/suzyturnerbooks

Which Book Characters Have You Fallen For?

I like to break up my author guest posts and giveaways with the odd discussion post. Sometimes it's hard coming up with a topic, but today was an easy one.

Falling in love with book characters.

Have you ever done it?
Do you think it's important that you do?

Personally, I think you get so much more out of a book if you end up swooning (even just a little) over one of the characters. And what's even more important is that you go all mushy over the love story within the book.

If I go through the list of books I've read this year, the ones that jump out at me first are the ones where I fell in love with the characters and the relationships they were in.

The books that come to mind are:

The Greystone Series by Taylor Longford. The beauty of this series, for me, is that I ended up loving the entire family of gargoyles so it made it easy to devour the books. I have enjoyed each book more than the one before and I can't wait for Taylor's next release! Each love story was so easy to root for and I know the rest of the series will be the same.

The Hunting Lila Series by Sarah Alderson. I TOTALLY fell in love with Alex. It was hard not to fall for him! It was easy to imagine I was Lila and swoon :D I know Sarah has a few more stories planned with these two. It's going to be awesome!

The last book that comes to mind is Impossible by Komal Kant. I was smitten with Luca by the end of the book. He was such a great character and perfect for Ashton. I loved the scenes with the two of them together, they were hot and intense. The passion between those two was fantastic!

Have you read any books lately with great romances in them?
Who have you fallen for lately?

Komal Kant's Top Five Ingredients In A Contemporary Romance

Komal Kant is here today to tell us about contemporary novels. Yay! It's like one of my favourite genres.

It is so, so cool to have you here, Komal!!

So here are Komal's Top Five Ways To Know You're Reading a Contemporary Novel...

So, as a writer (and reader) of contemporary novels, there are certain things that I have come to expect from a good contemporary novel. These things are what make us so invested in the story and the characters. They make us fall in love, laugh, cry, and sometimes scream out in frustration. I’m specifically focusing on Young Adult/New Adult Contemporary novels for this post. These are some of the elements I think most contemporary novels share. Feel free to add your own! =)

Hot/sexy male character who makes you swoon

Come on. Isn’t this one of the main reasons we read contemporary, to add to our list of fictional boyfriends? What’s a good contemporary novel without a sexy male character for us to drool over?

More drama than a soap opera

It ain’t a contemporary unless there is some major drama going on. So and so slept with the ex-tennis instructor of the butcher’s son. Oh my!

Main character or love interest has a tragic past or serious issue

She has a broken family. He has a violent past. She has commitment phobia. He is allergic to shellfish. Whatever the issue is, you can be sure that at least one of the characters will have something that they need to overcome.

Steamy make out/sex scenes

Um, hello? Of course there has to be a little steaminess present! I love reading about the character’s first kiss or how they get all tingly when the hot guy is near. There can never be enough steaminess to make us swoon!

Misunderstanding

She said WHAT? Misunderstandings can often make up a good portion of a contemporary novel. It’s that super annoying moment when the main characters misinterpret what has been said or done, but we eat it up anyway because we know things will work out in the end, despite the drama. It’s all part of what makes contemporary novels so addictive!

What do you think is a must-have in a YA or NA Contemporary novel?

You can purchase Komal's AWESOME contemporary novels on Amazon.

Impossible

Falling for Hadie

Komal Kant is the author of IMPOSSIBLE and FALLING FOR HADIE, which are the first two novels in her Young Adult Contemporary series. She is currently working on her first YA Paranormal novel, RUNAWAY MORTAL, which is about a girl accused of murdering her powerful angel Headmistress.

Komal lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband, and one too many dogs and cats (although she never seems to think she has enough!) Komal talks too much, laughs too loud, sings out-of-tune, and generally says inappropriate things at appropriate times. She is overly enthusiastic about video games, comic books, Spiderman, Batman films, Byronic heroes, horror movies, baking and pretty shoes.

If you'd like to connect with Komal online, you can check out the links below.

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Book Highlight - Forged by Greed by Angela Orlowski-Peart

I have been lucky enough to meet this lovely author through a Facebook Group I recently joined. When I saw she had recently released Forged by Greed, I really wanted to invite her onto YAlicious. Now, I haven't read the book yet, but the cover is stunning and it looks like a great read. It's sitting on my kindle, eagerly waiting for me to get through my TBR :)

Two Seattle 16-year-olds, Jatred and Jasmira, are not your typical star-crossed lovers.  They are not even your typical Shape Shifters. Sure, they try to live an ordinary life. At least, as ordinary as the Prince and the Princess of the rivaling ancient Races--the Winter wolves and the Summer leopards--can live. But eventually they learn that not much about their existence can be normal. Especially when the Races' two commanding Goddesses are involved.

One of the Goddesses is on a quest to tilt the scale of power to her side. The other will never let it happen, even if it means kicking Jatred and Jasmira's love to the curb. Nothing is off limits, including removing Jatred's memories of Jasmira.

To complicate things even more, there are the Universe's powers to consider. They are trapped in an ancient Amulet in order to protect the stability of the world. But the Universe has a mind of its own, and when the powers are unleashed, the forces of nature are disturbed; earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions shake the Earth. All Shifters of both Races are summoned by their respective Goddesses to fight in the name of, or against, the normalcy of the world.

From the author:

Forged by Greed is a Young Adult paranormal romance novel with elements of high fantasy, thriller, mythology, and humor. Readers of novels by Maggie Stiefvater and Cassandra Clare might consider adding this book to their list. 

Forged by Greed blends the elements of urban fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary. It is a story about teenage shape shifters, goddesses, the powers of the Universe, and magic. 

This is the first book in The Forged Series. Book two is scheduled for publishing in summer 2013. 

*****

It is my total pleasure to have Angela share her guest post on Why Writers Write. Welcome to YAlicious, Angela :)

Why do writers, write? Why do we publish our stories? Is it to express ourselves, or to make that bestseller list? Is it to share the product of our imagination, or is it simply to make a living? There isn’t one answer that would fit all. Every writer has her/his own reasons. So let’s see what some of the famous authors say about why they write and what, in their opinion, the writing is about:

"You don’t write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning." Neil Gaiman

"The answer to that is fairly simple-there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That's why I do it. I really can't imagine doing anything else and I can't imagine not doing what I do." Stephen King

"If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.” John Steinbeck

"To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself... Anybody can have ideas—the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph." Mark Twain in a letter to Emeline Beach, 1868.

"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day. You know that fiction is possibly the roughest trade of all in writing. You do not have the reference, the old important reference.

You have the sheet of blank paper, the pencil, and the obligation to invent truer than things can be true. You have to take what is not palpable and make it completely palpable and also have it seem normal and so that it can become a part of experience of the person who reads it." Ernest Hemingway

"You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it." Neil Gaiman

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair, the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page." Stephen King

Are you a writer? If so, do you write for living or just as a hobby? What does writing mean to you? What, in your opinion, is the most important aspect of writing? 

Thanks so much for these quotes, Angela. I know I write, because I would feel less of a person if I didn't. I write because I have stories burning inside me that want to get out. I write because I love to lose myself in a story and I share those stories, because I want to give other the opportunity to step out of reality and lose themselves in another world for a while.

If you'd like to lose yourself in Forged by Greed, you can purchase the book here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

If you'd like to connect with Angela online, you can follow the links below:

Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Goodreads 

Twitter

Pinterest

Website

Newsletter Sign-up

Movie Review - Pitch Perfect

Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

Director: 

Jason Moore

Writers: 

Kay Cannon (screenplay), Mickey Rapkin (book)

Stars:

 Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson

(From IMDb.com)

For those of you who know me, you can probably already guess what I thought of this movie. It is about young adults, it involves music and has a romantic element.

Check!
Check!
CHECK!

I LOVED this movie. It was so completely fantastic. The main character was really understated and I loved that about her. The love interest was a really great guy. I fell for him just a little bit... and man - could he sing! The rest of the cast were all exaggerated characters and so funny. The story is filled with great one-liners that my husband and I keep repeating to each other.

My only aversion was two small scenes involving some puke... I'm not great with puke.

As far as the music was concerned - it was amazing. The singing was top quality, with awesome harmonies and great mash-ups. I ended up buying a bunch of songs off iTunes straight after watching it and my poor family has had to endure hours of me singing the same songs!

If you like a feel-good movie with excellent music and lots of really good laughs, then this one is definitely worth checking out.

5 stars from me :D

Book Highlight - The Greystone Series by Taylor Longford

It's been a while since I've picked up a book that I simply could not put down... let alone three books in a row like that!!

Taylor Longford has created an amazing series based on a gargoyle family that I completely fell in love with. The premise is unique, the romance is sweet and the action was enough to have me turning pages well into the night.

You can check out my reviews for each book here:

Valor (Book 1)

Purchase link (currently FREE)

Dare (Book 2)

Purchase link

Reason (Book 3)

Purchase link

It is my total pleasure to have Taylor visit our blog today to share where she got her inspiration for gargoyles from.

Writers draw their ideas from many different sources. Some scour newspapers for material. Others have a muse that dictates the entire contents of a book to them…which is pretty handy. Some ideas visit writers in the form of dreams. Personally, I'm a "what if" writer. Back in elementary school, I discovered I could devote half of my attention to the teacher while I used the other half to daydream. These daydreams usually took the form of "what if things turned out a little differently" or "what if things were not what they seemed". For example: What if my third grade teacher, Mrs. Allen, was actually from another planet. It would certainly explain her short, flame-red hair and wickedly long fingernails.

So, I'm a daydreamer and that's where my gargoyle idea came from. Although I live in America, most of my family is from England and one day I was on tour bus in Oxford (which has a lot of gargoyles). On the tour, I learned that the word "gargoyle" comes from the French word for throat. And the ugly stone carvings that helped to drain rooftops were named thus because of the water that poured from their throats.

So I start thinking… what if there was another race of beings that were known as gargoyles because their throats were marked with ancient runes. And what if these gargoyles weren't ugly at all; they were beautiful. And what if they could turn to stone and had wings so that they were actually confused with the stone gargoyles found in places like Oxford. And what if those stone gargoyles that everyone is so familiar with were actually vicious and brutal harpies—the natural born enemies of the beautiful gargoyles with the runes on their necks.

And what if a pack of young gargoyles was trapped between the walls of an old house in England for eight hundred years, only to be discovered again in the twenty-first century…

And before you know it, I'm writing about Valor, Havoc, Reason, Defiance, Dare and Victor.

I adore the premise and love hearing how you came up with this awesome family. Thanks so much for visiting, Taylor.

If you'd like to connect with this talented author, you can find her online here:
Website: http://tlongford.wordpress.com/
Goodreads Author Page
Amazon Author Page