In Spades by K. Pinson Blog Hop, REVIEW and GIVEAWAY!!!

Title: In Spades (Mirrored #1)

Author: K. Pinson

Genre: New Adult

Hosted by: Love Between the Sheets

Avalynn has been running from her past for a couple of years now....never very far but always extremely fast. With an alcoholic father, a void of a mother and a town full of gossip, she struggles to find her place in the world.The only thing that saved her on her path of self destruction is her beautiful little sister, her miracle. Desperately trying to save Abby from a life that Avalynn has been trying so hard to escape from, she plots to take Abby away.The plan going dangerously astray, leaving Avalynn beaten and broken in what once was the hallway mirror in her childhood home. Avalynn finally comes to in the hospital after nearly being beaten to death. Father-Dead, Mother-Missing, Abby-In foster care--Everything changing in the blink of an eye.

Avalynn immediately sets to work to get her life in order , receive custody of precious Abby and focusing every ounce of attention, giving Abby the the life she deserves. Avalynn, now a 22 year old Elementary School Teacher and New Mommy, struggling to raise a beautiful and feisty five year old whom was just diagnosed with Mild Autism Disorder. Lots of challenges for her to face in the midst. Avalynn is ready to go at them all head on if it means Abby is raised in a happy and healthy home. Abby is the only thing she cares about...not even caring about herself or her life...that is...until she meets him. The man that can shatter her entire world with one glance. Their relationship a roller coaster ride from start to finish. One that Avalynn never wants to get off of..but she may not have a choice. Her happily ever after coming to a screeching halt yet again. Heartbreak, love, loss and hope--This story has it all, In Spades.

22 years old. Lives in a small farm town. Work full times as a Manager for an assisted living program for mentally challenged adults. I love my job. :) Getting my degree in music therapy.

I am going to start by saying that this is one of the best books I had read this year. It was very nicely 

written and held to the point of the story by not straying too far from the topic.

The story is about a woman, Avalynn, that has a harsh childhood growing up. The story opens with the most grotesque, terrifying, and bloodiest beating she had endured as of yet. She survives and in turn her father (who was the one who beat her almost to death) kills himself and her mother. So, her baby sister ends up in foster care where she stays until Ava wins custody of her.

Even though Ava has been strong, she finds out her baby sister (who calls her "Mom") has autism. So, she struggles day in and day out with that difficulty. She doesn't care though because she loves her baby girl so much.

She then meets the handsome stranger, Daxton, who turns her whole world upside down, for the better. There are some things in his past as well that you find out later in the book.

The story progresses pretty quickly but doesn't leave you behind. There are a few twists and turns as she fights him off and then accepts that she can't love anyone more than him. The end will take your breath away. I won't tell you anymore as it will give it away.

I have to say that I laughed, I cried, and I sulked right along with the characters. There were quite a few times I had to dry my eyes before I could continue. KP did a very good job of making you feel what her characters felt; what she felt as she was writing the book.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone I can scream it to from the rooftops! I simply cannot wait for the follow-up. Wait....there is a follow-up...right?

I distinctively remember seeing my beaten, broken down reflection surrounding me. The memory of seeing my face conveyed in a jagged portrayal, no matter which direction that I looked. I can still feel the gripping chills that continuously racked my body as I lay in a crimson sea of my own blood. My skin was searing from the tiny cuts invading it. The blood, there was so much blood, running steadily down my body. The thick, red liquid was warming my skin. I thought quietly to myself how it was possible to feel anything warm, when my insides were so cold.

           The voices were unwelcome noise in my now ringing ears, steadily growing louder and angrier. I could hear the crying, the screaming. I closed my eyes as they were beginning to burn. My left eye had begun to swell shut after receiving the repeated blows. I had no choice but to take advantage of the use of the right one, opening it slowly, working to get a look at my surroundings. I was trying to figure out how to make my next move. My vision was blurry. I could barely make out the figure progressively stalking towards me. I could smell him before I could even see his features. I was in trouble, big trouble. I hugged the floor with all of the energy I could muster, hoping to go unnoticed. He looked like the devil in the flesh, with eyes that glowed red; wasted, in every sense of the word. He was no longer the handsome charmer my mother had fallen in love with. No, that man was long gone, a pit of despair pulling him in. I cannot completely remember the entirety of his face. My mind was constantly trying to block memories of him out. All I can remember are shadows, sharp angles and those blood shot eyes.

          Sadly, his odor is what I remember most, a horrid mixture of stale vodka and peppermint schnapps. This scent had taken place in most of my childhood memories up until this point and it was a hard one to forget, as much as I’d tried. He laughed menacingly at my torn apart body. I flinched; I could not control any of my movements. Fear overtook me, gripping me hard and fast. In this moment, I prayed to be swallowed up whole by the floor.

Humiliated and broken to the world around me. The shards of glass that had once been our hallway mirror lay scattered around. I tried to get my left hand to follow the directions my brain was sending it, getting a grip on one of the broken pieces. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but it wasn‘t going to be pretty. Thoughts of suicide, murder and protection all rapidly flooded my mind. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do a damn thing. I dropped the shard just as quickly as I had picked it up. He still stood over me, unmoving. His cold, calculated voice repeating it’s all too familiar mantra. I would never forget the way the words rolled so easily off of his lips, disgust filling his face.

“Look at yourself, Avalynn.” He sneered at me, spitting as he spoke.

He held a broken shard of glass up to my face, as close as humanly possible. The jagged edges cutting into his own skin, but he didn’t even realize how much of his blood was dripping down.

“I said….get a good look, Avalynn Wright. Get a good look at the pitiful human being that ruined my life! You were a mistake. That’s all you will ever be. I‘m so glad such a waste of space doesn‘t hold my last name. Won‘t continue my legacy. You are worthless. Don‘t you ever forget that.” He slurred the words into each other, a normal person wouldn’t have been able to understand him, but I could. I wasn’t a normal person; I’ve never been able to be one.

 He threw the broken shard on top of my now broken body and walked out of the room, leaving me to drown in the hurt alone. I would never ever forget his words or the truth lying behind his sunken in eyes. His opinion had always been one that I held at a high standard, even though it killed me in every sense of the word. I couldn’t shake it.

As the numbness began to overtake my body and my mother’s screams had finally died out, I welcomed the darkness. I welcomed relief that my body and mind had felt. I was shutting down, becoming numb, like I had been for so many years before. I prayed for death. I could see the way out and I was going to take it.

I only came back to this hell for her, my beautiful baby sister whom I never had a chance to know or meet. I had only made things worse for her, like I usually did when it came to him. I had felt a compulsion to save her; take her away from the childhood that I was running from. She was so strikingly beautiful. The last image that crossed my mind was those big blue eyes that matched mine perfectly. I remember her looking up at me from her crib, reaching out her tiny hand to me and I couldn’t get to her, I couldn’t save her. He had gotten to me first.

I have a VERY special treat for you!!! Look below!!!!

Title: House of Cards (Mirrored #2)

Expected Release date – August 2013

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Daxton James holds the world in the palm of his hands. He has finally met the love of his life and is more than ready to start a family with her and her precious daughter, Abby. He has the best friends that anyone could ask for, a career doing two things he loves the most-music and helping people and his family piecing themselves back together, slowly but surely. Everything has fallen into place in his life and he couldn't be more happy about it.

There is only one problem---He can’t remember any of it.

Daxton was involved in a serious accident which has left him fighting for his life, while his loved ones wait in the midst, unsure if he is even going to come out of it alive. Thankfully he does, but his short term memory can’t say the same. He only remembers the Daxton he had been years previous. The playboy, the rock star and hopelessly devoted to a woman that is not Avalynn Wright.

The doctors tell Avalynn to just let his memory come back on it’s own and to not push him too much, fearful that forcing his memory will cause permanent scarring and trauma. Avalynn is so thankful to have Daxton alive, that if letting him go will keep him happy and healthy, she will do just that, even if it means killing off herself; bit by bit. Avalynn struggles to get a grasp on what is a reality and what is created by the stresses of her life which causes her to downward spiral, with nobody there to break her fall.

Will Avalynn and Daxton make it through this or is their relationship built only as strong as a House of Cards, ready to crumble at any moment?

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The Immortal Circus: Act Two by A.R. Kahler Book Blitz and GIVEAWAY!!!

Name: The Immortal Circus: ACT TWO 

Author: AR Kahler
Genre: Fantasy

Vivienne is almost content with her new life in the Cirque des Immortels. She has moved up from selling cotton candy to telling fortunes, she has a gorgeous, magical boyfriend, Kingston…and no one has been murdered since the clash between the otherworldly Courts. Her life under the faerie big top would be perfect, in fact, if not for the nightmares and visions that compel her to seek and confront her half-remembered past. But for Viv, not knowing her past may well be a blessing. There’s a reason she ran away. But can she truly escape herself?.

The second act of the fantastically evocative Cirque des Immortels series, The Immortal Circus: Act Two draws readers further into a world that’s at once wonderful, seductive…and deadly.

Step right up…

Alex is many things, but first and foremost, he’s a Sagittarius.

In the past few years he’s taught circus in Amsterdam and Madrid, gotten madly lost in the Scottish wilderness, received his Masters in Creative Writing from Glasgow University, drummed with Norse shamans, and even spent a few months as the assistant to Holly Black and Cassandra Clare.

THE IMMORTAL CIRCUS, book one in his Cirque des Immortels series, is now available from 47North. ACT TWO will be released June 11, 2013.

MARTYR, the first book in his post-apocalyptic YA fantasy series, THE HUNTED, is set to be published October 28, 2014 by Spencer Hill Press.

When he’s not writing or climbing in the rafters, he’s probably outside, staring at the clouds. And seeing as he now resides in Seattle, there are clouds aplenty.

One winner will get Book One in THE IMMORTAL CIRCUS series
2 Signed Bookplates
1 set of trading cards

Must be 13+ To Enter – Shipping in the US Only

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Adela Arthur And The Creators Clock by Judyann McCole Release Day Blitz!!!

Name: Adela Arthur and the Creator’s Clock

The Chronicle of A Book One

Author: Judyann McCole

Genre: Fantasy

Date of Publication: July 26^th 2013

ISBN: 1490322345

Number of pages: 250

Word Count: 73, 909

Cover Artist: Daniela Owergoor

To Who Ever This May Concern;

I wish I could tell you the contents of this book were purely fictional. That I, Adela Arthur, was just a normal sixteen year old from Portland; that dragons, giants, elves and mermaids were just myths.  Legends shared from crazy old grandparents to crazy old grandparents around campfires; after all that is what I used to believe.

I never would have thought they lived on the other side of our mirrors in a world called Cielieu. But they do…

I never would have thought there were humans, better known as Volsin that lived among them with the ability to create light from a single thought.  But there are…

I never would have thought I was one of them… But I am…

I am the last Arthur and I was brought to the human world after a Volsin, filled with greed, began to strip the light from our kind.

The human world was supposed to be a safe haven… but he’s found us and the only way to stop him is to go back to Cielieu and begin training as a student in the Elpida Castle of Light.

Like I said I wish the contents of this book were purely fictional and not my life…

~Adela Arthur

JUDYANN MCCOLE was a senior in high school when she started working on Adela Arthur and the Creator’s Clock during her history class. It started off as short story for a group of young kids she babysat for and grew into an adventure she herself wanted to go on. She is currently attending college in Virginia. Where she hopes to finish the next adventure in Adela Arthur’s life. She begin writing when she was in middle school most of it was just simple poetry but she was inspired by Maya Angelou and even a little of Dr. Seuss.

“You look nice,” her grandfather told her as she rushed out in to the kitchen to search for the bus pass.

“Grandpapa you’re blind,” she replied, looking inside the fruit platter.

Despite the fact that she was dressed incredibly plain, something she cared less about seeing as how they were poor. She wasn’t joking, Grandpapa Keane was blind, and to the best of Adela’s knowledge, he had always been so. Luckily, he had impeccable hearing, which made his job as a musical instrument repairer quite easy, but not many people went to the local blind man to repair their guitar.

He chuckled under his breath.

“Yes, but I believe you look nice,” he told her in his dry, low voice.

Grandpapa Keane was a somewhat tall man, with silver gray hair that stopped at a little past his shoulders and a large wrinkle creased his forehead. But what made him truly memorable was his dry, scratchy voice. It sounded like he had a smoke stuck in his lungs, which he most likely did with the amount of cigarettes he went through. Grandpapa Keane always made sure to smoke outside whenever he thought she wasn’t paying attention.

“Thank you. Have you seen my bus pass?” She smiled, leaning into the counter beside him.

“Adela that’s cruel. You know I am blind.” He pulled his pale lips in to a thin line before he was unable to control his laughter.

“Ha-ha very funny. But if I cannot find my pass or wallet, I won’t be able to get to school on time. As much I would love that, I would miss my own surprise party.” Her dark long hair swaying as she moved toward the living room to continue her search.

He tried to deny it.

“There is no party,” he claimed.

“Ok grandpapa.” She knew better than to believe him by now. There was a party, there was always a party. The guest list was short; not many people could fit in their run down home at the edge of town.

“It’s in the car.” He laughed at her as he ate a strip of bacon.

 “We don’t have a—Grandpapa you didn’t!” she complained. He just ignored her, dragging himself out of the kitchen and through the front door.

There, sitting comfortably in the weed and fungus covered driveway of their home, was a very old black and blue Honda Civic. The colors suited it well; it looked as though it had taken many beatings in its day. The paint was chipping off on its hood; the tires looked depressed and tired. She ran her fingers over it as if to make sure it was really there. Bits of paint came off at her touch.

Adela smiled as she stared at the car before her. “It’s beautiful…” she told.

They could not afford this; she wasn’t sure how he had managed to even get her anything but a bicycle. That was why it was beautiful.

“I had the boy make sure it was safe.” The boy he spoke of was Adela’s best friend, Hector Pelleas, the smartest teen in all of Ashland, if not all of Oregon. You would not think of him to be the car fixing type, but he just knew things.

“Stop overthinking it and go to where ever it is you go during the day,” he said, throwing her the keys before walking inside.

She did not move, just stood there, shocked. She pulled on the door a few times; it seemed the rust on its outer edges had cemented it closed. When she took a seat the engine roared to life with great force before coughing like it realized it was not the grand car it once was in its prime. The whole car itself shook slightly as if it were a tractor-trailer.

“Hello?” she answered her old cell phone with the half broken flip screen.

“Glove compartment. Now go or I will be forced to drive you myself,” Her grandfather said before hanging up.

Opening the compartment it revealed not only her bus pass, next to her wallet, but it also let out a foul odor. One of which Adela did not even want to know the sources of. She pulled out her license with a frown. It was hopefully the last time that thing ever saw the light of day.

With all the technology in the world you would think they would be able to make the pictures flattering, she thought.

Shaking her head at the run down house in front of her, Adela backed out of the driveway. It may have been the first day of fall but it did not seem that way. She had only made it a few blocks from her home when the skies opened; a full on downpour ensuing as a result. But that was Oregon. One-minute perfectly sunny day and the next you’re under a cold waterfall. This was just one of the ways that today was going to suck. She could feel it; she didn’t know why but she had this odd feeling, like something bad was going to happen.

She parked in the student parking lot and watched as the students of Ashland High ran under their jackets and books to avoid the rain like animals clearing a watering hole. High school was a jungle and something bad always happened in the jungle. She double-checked her zipper on her backpack before putting it over her shoulder. As she zipped up her old tattered jacket, she took a deep breath and prepared herself for the mad dash she was about to take. The minute the door was open she felt the cold water soak her jeans. Closing the door quickly, she ran as fast as she could into the brick building. 

15 Day Blogger Challenge-Day 13

Describe one underappreciated book EVERYONE should read.

I have felt in my time of reading that there are a lot of underappreciated books out there. I can't say that I can put my finger on just one. Indie author and traditional author. 

I tend the follow the trend. Where I love to read new stuff, I follow whatever everyone else is reading. I know this is sad, but it's true. I don't want to get caught up in a book that may be no good so I have a tendency to read something my friends recommend. Not to say that everything I read is recommended because that isn't true. But, it seems the ones I do read, tend to get good or great reviews so I wouldn't consider them underappreciated. 

I guess it goes by who you are talking to as well and what genre they read. For example, I LOVE the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell. She is my favorite author. But, say my sister isn't into crime novels so she wouldn't enjoy it as much. I know my friend Kim has said this about me with the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. She said once I started I wouldn't be able to stop. Man was she right! Again, I wouldn't consider that unappreciated as just needed a break from vampire books. 

So, I can't say I could recommend a book that is underappreciated. I tend to sway with what is common among readers.