“The Winner’s Curse/Crime” Tour: “What’s Your Winner’s Curse?” @mackidsbooks @marierutkoski #thewinnerscurse #thewinnerscrime

Oh man, guys, I dropped the ball on this one big time (real life intervened with a serious family health emergency this past weekend, and this post was supposed to go up Sunday!), but here’s my tour stop on the “Winner’s Crime” blog tour!

The prompt is: “The ‘Winner’s Curse’ is an economics term that means you’ve gotten what you wanted – but at too high a price.  What would you pay too much for?”

My winner’s curse and price? I suppose I’ve already paid it.

I was hellbent in high school on getting into a good school, and going abroad to study in Japan for my major. The price? My health. My health started to decline in my junior year in high school – I’d been pushing and rarely had a break since summer 1999. I thought it was just stress, so I tried to slow down after I knew what schools I’d gotten into in senior year.

Blog Tour Stop!: “Mortal Danger” – Ann Aguirre on Beauty, Plastic Surgery, and More!

Hey, everyone!

I’m quite happy to be hosting this stop on the “Mortal Danger” tour – I LOVED the start of this new series from Aguirre, who’s already proven herself with the “Razorland” trilogy as a capable YA author (and her NA stuff, so far, ain’t too bad neither).

So, I asked Aguirre to write a guest post. She chose the topic of beauty. Let’s hear what she has to say on it after the jump!

Blog Tour Stop!: Review – “The Kiss of Deception” by Mary E Pearson

Title: “The Kiss of Deception”

Author: Mary E Pearson

Publication Date: July 8, 2014 (Macmillan – North America)

Genre: YA, high fantasy

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Summary: In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

☆: 4.5/5 stars – a really awesome new series has just begun!

Review: Definitely different fare from Pearson, whose Jenna Fox series is the only work I’d read from her so far. I’m happy to say that “The Kiss of Deception” blows all of her previous work (that I’ve read) totally out of the water, and adds some more wonderful content to the very small YA high fantasy canon. With Lia as a wonderfully dynamic character leading the charge, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t drooling over the next installment and wanting it right now. If you’re looking for some awesome new YA high fantasy with a great female MC (or even if you’re not), go ahead and give “The Kiss of Deception” a try.

2014 Pasadena Teen Book Fest Blog Tour: Spotlight on Katherine Ewell

Hey, everyone! Welcome to my stop on the 2014 Pasadena Teen Book Fest Blog Tour! Sadly, I thought I was going to be able to go to the festival this year (its inaugural year), but due to work, am not able to. So, here’s an interview with the lovely Katherine Ewell (whose debut, “Dear Killer”, is on sale now!) instead. I loved “Dear Killer”, and the review for that will be up quite soon. So look forward to that.

Anyway! Let’s get to the interview. I’ve tried to keep things as spoiler-free as possible for new readers.

And if you’re able to, try to make it to the Pasadena Teen Book Fest if you live in Southern California, since I can’t, and tell me all about it! I’ll be quite jealous of you, I promise. More information on the Fest following the interview.

Blog Tour Stop!: “A Mad, Wicked Folly” by Sharon Biggs Walker

Hey, everyone! Welcome to my stop on the “Mad, Wicked Folly” blog tour! I’m currently reading the book, and man, I’m loving what I’m seeing. Golden Age/Fin de Siecle France, England, and art, as well as challenging traditional female roles? Yes, please. Also, THAT COVER.

Today we have Walker talking about first seeing the cover for the book, which is kind of awesome. You do see authors talking about “yay, cover art” on twitter, but here I feel like we get a good, in depth look at the process, too. Which is awesome. So, without further ado, let’s see how Walker feels about her cover – after the jump.

Blog Tour Stop!: “Tsarina” by J. Nelle Patrick (Jackson Pearce) – A Guide to Call Upon an Elk…

Hey, everyone!

We’re back, and we’re on a blog tour! Hooray! I’ve actually been looking forward to this book for awhile, and am reading it now. So I’m pretty happy to be on the tour for this one. I just finished it last night and it was AWESOME. Tragic in bits, but awesome nonetheless (review to come!). Faberge Egg Powers? Female Tsars? Romanov family stuff? Yup. Count me in.

So join me, after the jump, to see Patrick/Pearce’s guide to “Ways to Call Upon An Elk if you Lack Magical Faberge Egg Powers”. This should be quite fun!

Blog Tour Stop!: “Horde (Razorland #3)” by Ann Aguirre – on research for book 3!

Hey there, everyone! Usagi here. We’re quite excited to be apart of the blog tour for “Horde”, the final (and quite frankly, most awesome) book in the “Razorland” trilogy. Today, Aguirre has been kind enough to write a guest post on her research process for this final book, as well as other stuff too.

So, without further ado, Ann Aguirre on her research!

Blog Tour – ‘When the World Was Flat”! Ingrid Jonach talks multiverse genre books and more!

Hey, everyone, and welcome to our stop on the “When the World Was Flat (and we were in love)”! Today we have an interview with author Ingrid Jonach on writing a multiverse book and more. I enjoyed doing this interview as I enjoyed the book, so I hope you guys do too.

ALSO! We have a giveaway. It’s a rafflecopter, and because rafflecopter seem to hate wordpress, you can directly go to enter here. Wondering what the grand prize is?

One of two prize packs including:

– Earrings fashioned after the necklace that appears both on the cover and in the book, packed in a “When the World Was Flat” box. (They’re rather nice, if I do say so myself.)

– A bookmark

– One signed copy of “When the World Was Flat”!

The competition will run until 21 October 2013 and the winners will be announced on this page and via http://www.ingridjonach.com.

Now that is some nice loot. Go and enter, guys!

Okay. Enough delay. Time to find out Jonach’s answers to Usagi’s questions about this book! We tried to keep them as non-spoilery as possible, but just in case, you might want to wait to read this until after you finish the book.

Blog Tour: “Once We Were” author Kat Zhang talks writing sequels and more!

Hey, everyone! Welcome to our stop (and the final stop) on the “Once We Were” blog tour! Ashleigh and I are really excited to be on the tour, and so we asked Kat to write about her feels on writing a sequel, and some other stuff. For a debut author, I imagine that it must be daunting.

So for now, sit back, relax, and read Kat’s response below the jump. Remember, “Once We Were” is out now from HarperTeen, so go out and read it! Seriously. It’s awesome.

Review: “Horde (Razorland #3)” by Ann Aguirre

Title: “Horde (Razorland #3)”

Author: Ann Aguirre

Genre: Biopunk

Publication Date: October 29, 2013 (Macmillan Children’s – North America)

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Synopsis: The horde is coming.

Salvation is surrounded, monsters at the gates, and this time, they’re not going away. When Deuce, Fade, Stalker and Tegan set out, the odds are against them. But the odds have been stacked against Deuce from the moment she was born. She might not be a Huntress anymore, but she doesn’t run. With her knives in hand and her companions at her side, she will not falter, whether fighting for her life or Fade’s love.

Ahead, the battle of a lifetime awaits. Freaks are everywhere, attacking settlements, setting up scouts, perimeters, and patrols. There hasn’t been a war like this in centuries, and humans have forgotten how to stand and fight. Unless Deuce can lead them.

This time, however, more than the fate of a single enclave or outpost hangs in the balance. This time, Deuce carries the banner for the survival of all humanity.

☆: 5/5 stars – The best possible ending to a series I’m really going to miss.

Review: This trilogy, you guys. I’ve been keeping score since book one, and the way that Aguirre has grown in her writing for YA has grown in such measure that I can’t even. Really. Seriously. This book is the best possible ending, and yet, the most the most painful, as I’ve really grown to love Deuce and the boys. In this final book in the “Razorland” trilogy, we see a major tribute paid to the US Civil War, almost re-enacted, and prairie life come back to life in a hell of a future created by humanity itself. If there’s a final book in a trilogy you’ve got to read this year, or better yet, start, it has to be “Horde”.