Guest Post + Giveaway by Michael A. Rothman, author of Tools of Prophecy

Today we have a guest post by Michael A. Rothman, author of The Prophecies series. I recently posted a review of the first book, Heirs of Prophecy, which I really enjoyed. For today’s guest post, I asked if he can briefly talk about how he came up with the magical world and characters in the book. Following the guest post are details on the giveaway and more about the second book, Tools of Prophecy, which I will be reviewing on August 9. Woot.

Join the Praise of Motherhood Blog Tour. $450 in Prizes! Excerpts, Interviews, Guest Posts, Reviews.

Novel Publicity is now recruiting bloggers for a gigantic whirlwind tour. Over 100 bloggers will be sharing excerpts, interviews, and guest posts and competing for $500 in prizes. Free eBook copies will be available for anyone who would like to review the featured book, and autographed copies will be raffled off during the tour as well. In summary, the benefits are huge! You can drive traffic to your blog, support a wonderful author, and win colossal prizes.

Review + Giveaway: Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond

Today is my review tour stop of psychological thriller Forgive Me, Alex by Lane Diamond. I agreed to an early tour stop so that I’d be forced to read and I was a bit worried about finishing this book in time for my post schedule. Luckily, this book was an easy read and had me quite hooked after the first couple of chapters.

Read on to know more and for more details about the blog tour!

Review + Giveaway: Moa & Statue of Ku by Tricia Steward Shu

This week we have a blog tour for Moa and Statue of Ku by Tricia Stewart Shiu. Moa and Statue of Ku are the first two books of the Moa series and for this blog tour I received review copies of both books. As with all Novel Publicity blog tours, there are some fabulous goodies to be won (Ahem, $600 in Amazon Gift Cards plus a Kindle Fire!), so be sure to check out the giveaway details in this post!

Guest Post + Giveaway by Andy Gavin (author of The Darkening Dream)

Today we have a guest post by Andy Gavin, author of The Darkening Dream, a chilling new dark fantasy novel, and creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter. The book has received rave reviews and is on sale for only 99 cents on Amazon Kindle from June 25th-29th! Download your copy here.

In addition, Andy is doing a big giveaway, including a $100 gift certificate to Amazon, signed copies of his books, video games, posters, and more!

This is a post where I ramble about review rating systems and say MEH a lot

I don’t use any kind of rating system for my book reviews. I considered it once. I thought I should have some sort of numerical conclusion to my reviews, so I decided to use the rating system at Goodreads because it seemed pretty simple and easy to use. I even updated all my book reviews to reflect the rating. Less than ten minutes later I ended up taking it out. Meh.

I just don’t like doing those ratings. If I could skip it I would, but then most of you know you have to do them every time you post a review on Goodreads and Amazon. And I know it helps authors with their ratings, book sales and what not, so I don’t want to sacrifice a review just because I don’t like rating systems. Meh.

Review of Open Heart by Emlyn Chand

Open Heart is the second book of the Farsighted series. The first book was written in Simmi’s boyfriend Alex’s perspective and the book was about how he slowly came into his powers. Open Heart is obviously from Simmi’s perspective and dwells into deeper issues.

About the book

Simmi Shergill’s life is a mess. Her powers of psychic feeling are on the fritz, and Grandon Township’s sudden population boom has brought quite a few unsavory characters to town. She also looks like an over-blown balloon in her size 14 pants, but not even starving herself seems to be working as a diet plan. Well, at least her boyfriend, Alex, loves her so much he’d do anything for her. Last summer he even risked his life to protect her from the mysterious boy everyone was convinced wanted to kill her.

The problem is, she’s not so sure she feels the same way. Is Alex really the man of her dreams? And why can’t she stop fixating on her would-be killer, Dax? Whenever he’s around, part of her wants to run screaming in the other direction while the other part longs to run into his embrace, no matter who she’d hurt or what she’d risk.

Simmi’s loyalty is on the line. Who will she choose—the blind seer who loves her, or the charming telekinetic with “bad idea” written all over him? Emotions run high as the tension mounts in book two of the Farsighted series.

Review of The Grimoire: Lichgates by S.M. Boyce

About the book

The Grimoire is an old magical book that answers only to one person and it has chosen Kara Magari, who accidentally stumbles across it during a hike. When she opens the book, she suddenly finds herself in Ourea, a beautiful yet terrifying world  full of creatures that all want the book and its secrets. Kara suddenly becomes a most wanted person in this hidden magical world. By chance she meets Braeden Drakonin, a man who’s hiding something and has been looking for the book all his life. He can’t believe his luck when Kara comes into his life. Braeden only has one question for the Grimoire–one question that can fix everything in his broken life–and he’s not letting Kara out of his sight until he gets an answer. For Kara, there’s no way out of Ourea and she has no choice but to trust the Grimoire. — Get The Grimoire on Amazon.

I first found out about this book when I was browsing the giveaway page on Goodreads (awesome way to find book giveaways, by the way!). I saw the book and read the blurb. It had me at book and magic! I was feeling all book-blogger-ish and was interested in a book about a book. Plus it had magic stuff. And the title itself challenged me. Gree-mo-war? Grim-war? Gree-mee? Pronunciation challenge! :D