Month: August 2022

I am so excited that THE MAN OR THE MONSTER by Aamna Qureshi is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for 2 finished copies of the graphic novel from Vault & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d
like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.

 

About The Book:

Title: THE MAN OR THE MONSTER (The Marghazar Trials #2)

Author: Aamna Qureshi

Pub. Date: August 30, 2022

Publisher: CamCat Books

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Order a
signed copy directly from Aamna!

She made her decision. Now she has to live with it.

Durkhanai Miangul sealed her lover’s fate when she sent him through a door where either a lady or a lion awaited him. But her decision was only the beginning of her troubles. Durkhanai worries that she might not be the queen her people need or deserve when conflict threatens her kingdom.

Her presumed-dead father comes back with a vengeance and wishes she join him in
his cause. But her family’s denial of his revenge forces Durkhanai to take
matters into her own hands and she must decide whether to follow the traditions
of her forefathers or forge a new path on her own.

Buy
Book 1, THE LADY OR THE LION now!

 

 

Excerpt:

Weeks passed. No one came to visit her, and she stopped
waiting. As the weather around her chilled, she felt her heart frosting over.
Faintly, she felt she had rid her system of him. Perhaps she would never feel a
thing again.

But then, he came to her, while she was curled up in bed,
crying.

She didn’t know how he came to be there, just that one
moment she was pushing tears back into her eyes, and the next there was a body
beside hers. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know that it was him.

“Come, sit up,” he coaxed, and she did as she was told.
He knead-

ed the tension from her shoulders with the hard curves of
his palms.

“What worries you?” he asked. She sighed in response.

“I can’t bear it anymore.”

“You can,” he told her. “And you will.”

She turned to look at him and instantly fell into a hug
against his chest. She was safe.

They stayed like that for some time. She strained her ear
in search of his heartbeat. But he was calm. Sure. Solid.

She pulled back, looked up at him. Gently, his fingers
cupped her face like wine—he tipped her chin forward to drink, but paused at
the last whisper before skin met skin.

He waited.

And so, soft as sin, she pressed her warm lips against
his. He tasted like a thousand stars bursting in her mouth. His fingers
murmured across her skin, cold as ice, but everywhere he touched her felt like
fire.

She kissed his cold cheek. He tasted like winter:
pine-needle and frost, everything that freezes your nose but warms your soul.
She was inexplicably warm and closed her eyes in comfort.

Instinctively, she reached for his lips once more—only to
find they were not there. He was gone.

 

 

When she awoke from the dream, she felt unaligned. As
though her

soul had been roughly shoved back into her body. She was
paralyzed, as she was when she awoke from nightmares, her body frozen with
fear—yet this was the opposite, for when she awoke, her reality was the
nightmare.

Slowly, the ice burned away. The pain was sudden and
swift, knocking the breath from her lungs. Durkhanai began to cry. She loved
him. The realization struck her.

She loved him.

And there was nothing to be done.

 

About Aamna Qureshi:

Aamna Qureshi
is a Pakistani, Muslim American who adores words. She grew up in a very loud
household, surrounded by English (for school), Urdu (for conversation), and
Punjabi (for emotion). Through her writing, she wishes to inspire a love for
the beautiful country and rich culture that informed much of her identity. When
she’s not writing, she loves to travel to new places where she can explore
different cultures or to Pakistan where she can revitalize her roots. She also
loves baking complicated desserts, drinking fancy teas and coffees, watching
sappy rom-coms, and going for walks about the estate (her backyard). She
currently lives in New York. Look for her on IG @aamna_qureshi and Twitter
@aamnaqureshi_ and at her website aamnaqureshi.com. 

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner
will receive a finished copy of THE MAN OR THE MONSTER, US Only.

Ends
September 20^th, midnight EST.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On the Subject of Unmentionable Things by Julia Walton
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Publishing Date: August 23, 2022

Synopsis:
A girl rewrites sex education, one viral post at a time, in this fiercely honest and delightfully awkward novel by the award-winning author of Words on Bathroom Walls.

Phoebe Townsend is a rule follower . . . or so everyone thinks. She’s an A student who writes for her small-town school newspaper. But what no one knows is that Phoebe is also Pom—the anonymous teen who’s rewriting sex education on her blog and social media.

Phoebe is not a pervert. No, really. Her unconventional hobby is just a research obsession. And sex should not be a secret. As long as Phoebe stays undercover, she’s sure she’ll fly through junior year unnoticed. . . .

That is, until Pom goes viral, courtesy of mayoral candidate Lydia Brookhurst. The former beauty queen labels Phoebe’s work an “assault on morality,” riling up her supporters and calling on Pom to reveal her identity. But Phoebe is not backing down. With her anonymity on the line, is it all worth the fight?

Julia Walton delivers a brutally honest novel about sex, social media, and the courage to pursue truth when misinformation is rife. Who knew truth could be so scandalous?

Content Warning: Doxxing and harassment

Book Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58094178-on-the-subject-of-unmentionable-things
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Subject-Unmentionable-Things-Julia-Walton/dp/0593310578/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/on-the-subject-of-unmentionable-things-julia-walton/1140555560
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/On-Subject-Unmentionable-Things-Julia-Walton/9780593310571
Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/on-the-subject-of-unmentionable/9780593310571-item.html
IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593310571

Before I begin my review I quickly have to thank TBR and Beyond Tours (you can click HERE to see the tour schedule) and the publisher for sending me an arc of the book to read.

This is Julia’s third novel and after reading the description I was intrigued and wanted to read it.

This was pretty much a quick read and I read it in about a day and a half. I was instantly hooked and wanted to keep reading this. I definitely did not want to put it down. If Julia’s previous books are anything like this then I definitely want to read them.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book was the additional elements from the main character, Phoebe’s blog, Twitter, emails, texts and etc I think it adds just another dimension to the book. I plan on picking up a finished copy to see how they look in the book since I read an eArc of it.

I am clearly not the demographic for this book but as a parent, I think it’s an important book to read and have our teens read. I admit it made me uncomfortable and that is because I am looking at it through a parent’s eye and we want our kids to know things but yet we don’t if that makes sense? Growing up this kind of book never existed and I wish it would have. This was a taboo and uncomfortable topic and no one wanted to talk about it. Sadly it still seems to be a taboo and uncomfortable topic.

The main character is Phoebe, a high school student who follows things to the tee. She is a straight-A student and writes for her high school paper. (I loved that the storyline takes place in a small town.) What her small town doesn’t know is that Phoebe is actually Pom, an anonymous teen who is rewriting sex education on her social media accounts. I should mention Phoebe is curious and she wants everyone to have the right information. Everyone is loving it except one person and that is Mrs, Brookhurst who doesn’t hold back on her criticism of Pom calling Pom a pervert. This was why Phoebe remained anonymous. But can she remain anonymous? What will people think about her if they find out?

Without giving too much away I suggest you pick it up to read. Julia did a perfect job bringing such important topics to light.

 

About the Author:
JULIA WALTON is the award-winning author of Words on Bathroom Walls (now adapted to a major motion picture!) and Just Our Luck. Her third novel, On the Subject of Unmentionable Things, is set for release on August 23, 2022. She received an MFA in creative writing from Chapman University and a BA in History from UC Irvine. Julia lives with her husband and children in Huntington Beach, CA.

Author Links:
Website: https://www.juliawalton.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JWaltonwrites
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jwaltonwrites/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14073863.Julia_Walton

Tour Schedule:
TOUR SCHEDULE: On the Subject of Unmentionable Things by Julia Walton

The Acadian Secret
Tammy Lowe
(The Acadian Secret, #1)
Published by: The Wild Rose Press
Publication date: August 10th 2022
Genres: Action, Adventure, Time-Travel, Young Adult

Nova Scotia has kept an incredible secret for centuries. In 1795, sixteen-year-old John Smith convinced he’s found buried treasure, digs down into a mysterious pit on a small island.

​In present-day Nova Scotia, twelve-year-old Elisabeth London knows there’s no such thing as magic, but when she finds herself in 17th-century Scotland, she no longer knows what to think. While under the guardianship of a kind-hearted Highlander, Elisabeth discovers his ancestral home holds a mystery of its own.

​As John continues to dig the strange pit, he inadvertently begins the longest-running, most expensive, and deadliest treasure hunt in history. Now, Elisabeth London and John Smith each try to unravel the secrets consuming them, unaware that a tormented young man holds the string weaving all of their lives together.

​For Elisabeth, the adventure is just beginning. Unless her parents discover she’s time-traveling. Then…she is so grounded.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

—

EXCERPT:

As the evening sun wandered behind the mountains, it cast an emerald glow across a glen. The valley was dotted with boulders, rocks, and drifts of bright yellow flowering bushes that blanketed the rolling hills, perfuming the air with a coconut scent. A small river twisted its way toward a distant forest. Overhead, a hawk screeched while soaring across an endless blue sky, declaring its vast territory to other hawks.

A dog yelped, over and over and over again.

Awakened by the barking, Elisabeth’s eyes narrowed in confusion. Her chest tightened as she sat up. “What the—?”

A huge, hairy boar, with razor-sharp tusks, lunged into the nearby brambles.

With a gasp, Elisabeth scrambled behind a large rock. Her breath hitched as her mind raced to make sense of the surrounding scenery.

That’s when a hunter, with a short beard and wild black hair that gave him a crazed look, came galloping over the crest of a hill on horseback. “Good boy, Talbot,” he yelled when the dog lunged into the brambles after the wild pig. The angry grunts of the boar filtered through the thick shrub.

Elisabeth leaped back, ducking low to hide behind the boulder. One hand pressed tight across her mouth.

The clip-clop stomping of the horse’s hooves sounded closer. Then, the hunter’s voice rose in pitch as his piercing blue-green eyes stared down at her, crouched in the heather. “What the devil…?”

A cold chill ran up her spine when he dismounted. His head cocked slightly to the side, and she realized his hearing focused on the dog and the boar as he drew closer.

Bending to peer at her, the hunter scratched his cheek. “You all right, lass?”

Elisabeth’s muscles tightened and she drew her head back sharply. “Yep. Fine.”

“Then…what are ye doing out here?” he asked in an uncertain tone while helping her to her feet. “Dressed in naught but…that?”

Elisabeth’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“Well, you’re lucky I found you before—” The silence in the valley now broken, Talbot howled, the boar squealed, and Elisabeth backed away with quick, jerky steps.

“Dinnae move, lass,” he ordered in a steady, low-pitched voice while reaching for his dagger.

Elisabeth gasped for air, watching the enraged boar desert its hiding spot in the brambles and charge toward the dog, its lethal tusks ready to kill.

Talbot seemed well-trained so, instead of turning tail and running, he danced backward, facing the pig, luring it away from his master. With the boar now in pursuit of the dog, the hunter ran at the beast as if he were a wild animal himself. Jumping on the boar from behind, he grabbed its ear, yanked its head up, and slashed its throat.

Elisabeth’s heart pounded, and she gripped the sides of her head.

The hunter jumped off the boar as it fell limp at his feet and cleaned the blade on the carcass before putting it away. He then walked toward Elisabeth, his bloody hands held in front of him.

“You’ve got a knife.” Elisabeth whimpered as her gaze darted from the enormous man dressed in a skirt to the ragtag group of hunters who came cantering over the crest of the hill.

“Aye, and a sword.” He smirked while pointing at it. “I’m not going to harm you, though. I’m hunting.”

“Hunting what? Little girls?” Not waiting for an answer, she bolted, heading for the distant forest.

The hunter took a step back and chuckled as Elisabeth made her great escape in slow motion, hindered terribly by bare feet.

“You’re completely mad!” he shouted while mounting his horse, motioning to the arriving men to deal with the boar carcass.

The black warhorse was as large and intimidating as the hunter and the animal’s powerful legs kicked up tall grass and thistles as it galloped along. The sound of its hooves seemed amplified as it neared Elisabeth.

Without needing to slow his horse, he reached down, scooped Elisabeth into his arms, and placed her in the saddle in front of him. She let out a sharp scream.

“There. Now be a good lass. I promise I’m not going to hurt you. You’re on my land so I know you’re not from these parts. I cannot leave you alone out here. It’s not safe and will soon be dark.”

A wave of coldness caused Elisabeth to tremble. She had no idea where she was and no recollection of arriving. When the hunter wrapped her in his plaid and nudged his horse on, Elisabeth’s shoulders tightened. She remained silent, bringing a shaky hand to her forehead while trying to figure out what the heck was going on. This definitely wasn’t Mahone Bay anymore.

Author Bio:

An adventurer at heart, Tammy has explored ruins in Rome, Pompeii, and Istanbul (Constantinople) with historians and archaeologists.

She’s slept in the tower of a 15th-century castle in Scotland, climbed down the cramped tunnels of Egyptian pyramids, scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sailed on a tiny raft down the Yulong River in rural China, dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert, and escaped from head-hunters in the South Pacific.

I suppose one could say her own childhood wish of time traveling adventures came true…in a roundabout way.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest

 

GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hosted by:

I am so excited that THE RUSH by Si Spurrier & Nathan C. Gooden is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below. 

This blitz also includes a giveaway for 2 finished copies of the graphic novel from Vault & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d
like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.

 

About The Book:

Title: THE RUSH: This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills (The Rush #1-5)

Author: Si Spurrier, Addison Duke (Colorist), Nathan C.
Gooden (Illustrations), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Letterer), Adrian F. Wassel (Editor)

Pub. Date: August 9, 2022

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 136

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Historical horror that chills to the bone, The RUSH. is for fans of Dan
Simmons’, The Terror mined with a Northwestern Yukon gold rush
edge. Answer the call of the wild north and stampede to the Klondike…

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. ALL THAT HUNGERS IS NOT HOLY. ALL THAT LIVE
ARE NOT ALIVE.

This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills.

1899, Yukon Territory. A frozen frontier, bloodied and bruised by the last
great Gold Rush. But in the lawless wastes to the North, something whispers in
the hindbrains of men, drawing them to a blighted valley, where giant
spidertracks mark the snow and impossible guns roar in the night.

To Brokehoof, where gold and blood are mined alike. Now, stumbling towards its
haunted forests comes a woman gripped not by greed — but the snarling rage of
a mother in search of her child…

From Si Spurrier (Way of X, Hellblazer) and Nathan C. Gooden (Barbaric, Dark
One) comes THE RUSH, a dark, lyrical delve into the horror and madness of the
wild Yukon.

Collects the entire series. For fans of The Terror, Fortitude, Coda,
and Moonshine.

Reviews:

“The
book strikes a wealthy mixed vein of sophisticated psychological chills and
monstrous horror.”― Publishers Weekly

“Gritty historical drama meets supernatural horror in this sumptuously
drawn tale set during the Yukon Gold Rush.” ― PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“The Rush is a chilling bit of historical horror.
Rugged and raw and thoroughly researched. It’s got such a wonderfully creepy
sense of menace but most of all it’s the moving story of a mother searching for
her child, that’s its beating heart. Wonderful work.”  — Victor
Lavalle (best-selling and award-winning author of he anthology, Slapboxing
with Jesus and four novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The
Devil in Silver, and The Changeling, the fantasy-horror novella The
Ballad of Black Tom, and the comics series Destroyer and Eve)

“The Rush is a splendidly savage tale of frontier scum
and the doom they’ve brought down upon themselves, and the innocents cursed to
suffer alongside them. I for one can’t wait to see more.”  — Garth
Ennis (best-selling and award-winning writer, Preacher, and
writer/co-creator of The Boys)

 

 

 

 

 

About Si Spurrier:

His work in the latter field stretches from award winning
creator-owned books such as Numbercruncher, Six-Gun
Gorilla and The Spire to projects in the
U.S. mainstream like Hellblazer, The
Dreaming, and X-Men. It all began with a series
of twist-in-the-tail stories for the UK’s beloved 2000AD, which
ignited an enduring love for genre fiction. His latest book, Coda,
is being published by Boom! Studios at present.

His prose
works range from the beatnik neurosis-noir of Contract to
the occult whodunnit A Serpent Uncoiled via
various franchise and genre-transgressing titles. In 2016 he took a foray into
experimental fiction with the e-novella Unusual Concentrations:
a tale of coffee, crime and overhead conversations.

He lives in Margate, regards sushi as part of the plotting process, and
has the fluffiest of cats.

Website | Twitter |
Instagram | Goodreads

 

About Nathan C. Gooden:

An
award-winning illustrator and sequential artist, Nathan C. Gooden is
Art Director at Vault Comics. Nathan studied animation at the Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn, and worked in film production, before co-founding Vault Comics.
Nathan’s previous works include Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One (Vault), Barbaric
(Vault), Zojaqan (Vault), and  Killbox (from
American Gothic Press). He lives in Southern California, where he plays a lot
of basketball and hikes constantly with his wife. 

Website |  Instagram | Goodreads

 

 

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners
will receive a finished copy of THE RUSH, US Only.

Ends August
23^rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway