GIVEAWAY and BLITZ: Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher

Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher
Genre: YA Dystopian
Publication date: May 10th 2012

Synopsis:

A harrowing story of love and survival.

In a future of scarce resources, where the possession of gas and diesel is punishable by death, a teenage boy and a pregnant girl must save their impoverished family. They risk their lives on a terrifying journey to sell stolen fuel on the black market.

Goodreads

Amazon

EXCERPT

Mary surprised Joe by knocking his arms away. She was stronger than she looked. Then she swept her legs off the bed and sprang to her feet. She took two steps and turned to face him as if to prove there was nothing wrong with her. But there was definitely something wrong. She wavered a moment. Her already white face turned ghostly. Her eyelids trembled. She seemed to realize she was becoming faint, and what that meant.

“I’m fine,” she said. “You don’t have to go.”

Joe got ready to catch her in case she fell, but somehow she held herself steady.
“It’s okay,” Joe said. “Just sit down. I will go find some food.”

Joe inched toward her. He was afraid to grab her again because she might try to wrench free once more and really fall. When she coughed, her little shoulders jerked and her round stomach jumped.

 

Her head was drooped low and her hair hung down so he couldn’t see her face at all.

“Come on, lay down,” Joe said.

She didn’t move. Joe stepped toward her, but before he could put his arms around her, she tilted forward and rested the crown of her head against his chest. He slid his arms along the sides of her hard belly and around her waist. Then he shifted her toward the bed again. She moved like a bundle of empty sacks in his arms. He set her gently on the bed before he bent down to lift her feet onto the sheets.

After he sat in the chair, Mary asked him, “What if you don’t come back?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Joe said.

“How do you know?”

“I just know. You have to trust me.”

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AUTHOR BIO

Thomas Christopher grew up in Iowa. He received his MFA from Western Michigan University. His short stories have appeared in The Louisville Review, The MacGuffin, Redivider, and Cooweescoowee. He was also awarded an Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant and was a finalist for the Matthew Clark Prize in Fiction. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife and son.

LINKS:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter 

REVIEW: Caly's Piece by JM Miller

 Caly's Piece

by J.M. Miller

YA/Coming of Age Romance

Caly knew her mom would punish her; in fact, she'd planned on it. But a late-night ride in the backseat of a cop car wasn't part of that plan.

Seventeen-year-old Caly Monroe has one passion: graffiti. Her mom hates it. And that's precisely why Caly decides to spray paint a barely dressed portrait of her mom in the middle of town, hoping to change her perspective―or maybe it was just to piss her off.

After Caly's mom picks her up from the police station, she banishes Caly to Gemstone Beach, the run-down bay beach where they used to live each summer. The last time Caly stepped a bare foot onto that beach's crusty sand was five years ago, before her mom opened a bakery and permanently ended their vacations. When Caly returns, she is tasked with manual labor at the boardwalk as punishment; though, she soon discovers the real punishment is facing the people she once cared most about, including her first love, Aden. 

While Caly continues to contemplate her artistic future, she has to let her heart choose what, and who, is worth fighting for.

REVIEW
This was a really good story.  I started it on Thursday and was supposed to post it on Friday, but I couldn’t bring myself to rush through the book to get the review up on time, so I emailed JM and told her it would be late.  I seriously read this book slow because I loved it!

The setting was awesome.  I know that getting a beach summer is a dream to many people, but I grew up on the beach.  It wasn’t an ocean, it was Lake Erie.  I lived on the beach, I went there every day, we had bonfires, and drank beer, and had first kisses (and sometimes a little more) … just like Caly’s beach in this book.  It’s a special thing when you get a summer like that, and Caly had quite a few of them under her belt before she was banished from the beach by her mother’s new business.

Caly’s family has a beach house.  Maybe it was sorta dumpy, but it was theirs, it was private and it was filled with people she knew her whole life.  Including one very special boy named Aden.

Being sent to the beach this year is a punishment because Caly tagged her mom’s bakery with graffiti art – I totally thought this was hilarious!  She made her mom a pin-up with the tagline, Eat my Muffin!

The book opens with Caly running from the police because of the beautiful piece of art she just sprayed all over he mom’s building, being caught by an ex-boyfriend who admits the only reason he dated her was because her mother begged his mother and he got a laptop out of the deal.

Buuuuurrn.

Needless to say, Caly’s coming-of-age story is not going well.  So she gets banished BACK to the beach with her not-so-responsible grandfather (he’s the reason she had to stop going to the beach in the first place, after the business took off, Caly’s mom had no time to go down there with her). She’s to perform manual labor helping the weird owner of the “resort” fix an old building. To make matters worse, her first love, Aden, is now dating her old BFF from back in the day.  Her ex-BFF is a total witch and makes Caly’s life a living hell over this boy thing.

But in between all this angst there’s a lot more going on.  Caly’s life is about to change forever, she’s about to figure out what it means to be a grown-up, and she’s about to realize and accept many things about herself that make her special.

This is a great read and one that I’d recommend to kids, parents, and just regular adults who love being transported back to that “one” awesome summer that totally changed your life.  JM Miller is an author to watch and I look forward to reading more books from her in the future.

About the author...

About me...hmm...

I love to travel.

I love to write.

Both satisfy my often restless psyche.

I'm a coffee and tea drinker. Do we really have to be one or the other?

I prefer my ice cream with some kind of chunk: pineapple, cherry, chocolate, cookie dough. Oh, the possibilities.

I love Goodreads friends so add me!

   

COVER REVEALS: Divided Worlds Trilogy by Imran Siddiq

COVER REVEALS  
DISASSEMBLE DISRUPT 

by Imran Siddiq

Series: Divided Worlds Trilogy, #2 and #3

Publication date: July 2013

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

BOOK TWO

Disassemble: The Divided Worlds Trilogy Book Two

Zachary is a scavenger, and he’ll do anything to survive. With Rosa by his side, nothing will break him.

After the Galilei Research Base is plunged into darkness, an unexpected threat emerges.

Where Zachary was the hero before, he will become the enemy.

It’s not just about surviving anymore. It’s about saving everyone before they destroy one another, especially Rosa.

BOOK THREE

Disrupt: The Divided Worlds Trilogy Book Three

Everything that Zachary lived for has changed. There are no rewards to come from scavenging. Just memories. But even they are not enough to remove thoughts of a worthless life. 

In the midst of death, a purpose to live appears.

It wills Zachary to break the divide that has destroyed many.

This fight will be on his terms.
 

Disconnect: The Divided Worlds Trilogy Book One

******This was a five star read for me - if you like SF and you can deal with the "hardness" of this book (it's NOT fluffy SF, so be prepared) this book has an awesome ending and I honestly can't wait to see what happens in book two.*******  

Zachary is a scavenger, and he’ll do anything to survive. With Rosa by his side, nothing will break him.

After the Galilei Research Base is plunged into darkness, an unexpected threat emerges.

Where Zachary was the hero before, he will become the enemy.

It’s not just about surviving anymore. It’s about saving everyone before they destroy one another, especially Rosa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Imran Siddiq may have tried to leave Leicester a few times, but its become his place to wake up to two cats, freeze when the heating’s off and most of all, get down to writing. At a young age, his primary school teacher commented on his creativity and ability to tell stories. At the age of 29, during a night in the jungle, the bug inside awakened, and for the last 5 years he’s been sacrificing every second that he can to write. A veteran of writing festivals, a presence on Twitter and gobbling up all forms of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, he hopes he can bring a smile to others in the same way that he had, aged 5, reading with a torch under his duvet. Imran’s preferred genre is YA Sci Fi, and he has a tendency to throw a droid in every novel.