ARC Review: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT by Debut Author Colleen Clayton

  Hello everyone! Today I'm proud to share to you one of the beautiful contemporary books I've read this year. It is a book from the debut author Colleen Clayton (who loves the words Violet and Oceania) and who does watch a large amount of televisions (you're not alone ;p). Below is my review of the book, which was given by lovely Karen <3 in exchange for an honest review and some of the links where you can find Ms. Clayton. Enjoy and don't forget to add it to your to-read list! :D

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton

Hardcover: 320 pages

Release date: October 9th, 2012

Publisher: Poppy (Little Brown Books)

Goodreads Rating: 4.33

Goodreads Summary: How can you talk about something you can’t remember?

Before the ski trip, sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy was a cheerleader (at the bottom of the pyramid, but still...), a straight-A student, and a member of a solid trio of best friends. When she ends up on a ski lift next to handsome local college boy, Dax Windsor, she’s thrilled; but Dax takes everything from Sid—including a lock of her perfect red curls—and she can’t remember any of it.

Back home and unable to relate to her old friends, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston for company. But as she gets to know Corey (slacker, baker, total dreamboat), Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. Now, if she can just shake the nightmares and those few extra pounds, everything will be perfect... or so she thinks.

witty and poignant, Colleen Clayton’s stunning debut is a story about moving on after the unthinkable happens.

Barnes and Noble

What Happens Next is one of the lovely contemporary books to be released this 2012, and I’m proud to say that I’m one of the first readers to read it before its release day (Yay!). Now for the review…

I think the plot was great it was built perfectly with realistic account of the lives of a teenager. There are no boring patches I’ve seen throughout the story, but somehow I find the ending a bit over hurried but I don’t think it was that biggie. There is a sensitive content on the story and I don’t think it’s hidden from the readers (read the excerpt). It serve a useful purpose for me, it help me understand more the theme and the characters.

Cassidy and Corey were convincingly rounded as well as the minor characters her family and friends—Kirsten and Paige. They played each of their roles perfectly that help the story to become more interesting, with their combined good and bad qualities. I love mostly was Cassidy’s strength with all the struggles she faces through her friends, her dilemma whether to tell her secret to her family and with herself, emotionally and physically. And then there’s Corey (save the best for last :D)…he is an incredible, sweet guy but not being too cheesy and all girls will absolutely love him without a doubt. I love to thank Ms. Colleen for the words she put through Corey, it made him my no.1 if not one of the swoon worthy, to-follow guy everywhere not just by the looks but by his words. Sid and Corey had a beautiful chemistry; their attraction with each other was put up rightly with good explanation and timing.

All in all I love every single part of the book. From its plot, characters, through its concept—hope, hope that everything will be alright, that there’s always those people who’s on your side no matter what. It deserves all the praises it’s been receiving. Totally recommend it!

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 About the author:

 

COLLEEN CLAYTON

            Colleen Clayton grew up in a small, suburban town just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from Kent State University, she worked as a social worker in residential treatment centers for troubled teens and as Program Supervisor for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mahoning Valley. She currently lives in Ohio with her family and recently received her MFA in fiction writing from the Northeast Ohio Consortium (NEOMFA). She teaches fiction writing and composition at Youngstown State University.

Social Network Links:

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Blog
Website

Cover Reveal: VENGEANCE BOUND by Justina Ireland

Vengeance Bound

by Justina Ireland

YA Paranormal

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Expected release: April 2, 2013

Reveal organized by: AToMR Tours

The Goddess Test meets Dexter in an edgy, compelling debut about one teen’s quest for revenge…no matter how far it takes her.

Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies—the hawk and the serpent—lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.

Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? 

As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.

Buy a copy: Amazon││Indiebound

 

THE LOST GIRL Pub Day Splash

I'm so pleased to be be part of the release day of The Lost Girl, not just because I think it will bring a new taste to the world of books but the most part is its release date!The same day of my 17th b-day, Yay! :)) So I hope everyone will have Lost Girl on their to-read list. Ciao!

               The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Hardcover: 432 pages

Release date: August 28th, 2012

Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children's Books

Goodreads Summary: Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.

The book is up on:

Barnes and Noble 

Indiebound

Amazon UK

Click here to read the First Chapter.
And here to see :

>What People are Saying
>Trailer
>Behind the Book
>Playlist

About this author

Sangu Mandanna was four years old when she was chased by an elephant and wrote her first story about it and decided that this was what she wanted to do with her life. Seventeen years later, she readFrankenstein. It sent her into a writing frenzy that became THE LOST GIRL, a novel about death and love and the tie that binds the two together. Sangu now lives in England with her husband and baby son.

Social Network Links:

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Website

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Happy Release Day: Weighted by Ciara Knight

Hello fellas! Today is the release day of a prequel novelette for "The Neumarian Chronicles". And I'm happy to be one of the bloggers who's going to spread the news! Hope everyone become interested in this book and don't forget to read the excerpt!

                                       Weighted by Ciara Knight

eBook: 42 pages

Release date: August 21th, 2012

Ages: 14+

Goodreads Summary: Weighted (Prequel Novelette)

The Great War of  2185 is over, but my nightmare has just began. O am being held captive in the Queen's ship awaiting interrogation. My only possible ally is the princess, but I'm unsure if she is really my friend or a trap set by the Queen to fool me into sharing the secret of my gift. A gift I keep hidden from myself. It swirls inside my body begging for release, but it is the one thing the Queen can never discover. Will I have the strength to keep the secret? I'll know the answer soon. If the stories are true about the interrogators. I'll be either dead or a traitor  to my people by morning.

The book is up on:

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

Click here to read the excerpt.

Coming August 21, 2012 at all major online retailers.

About this author

 Ciara Knight began her writing career in 2008. She writes to ‘Defy the Dark’ with her fantasy, paranormal, and dystopian books. Her first Young Adult Series, Battle for Souls, will be published by Turquoise Morning press, with her prequel novella, Love’s Long Shadow, releasing in October 2011. Followed by Rise From Darkness (Book I) in March 2012, Fall From Grace (Book II), and Ascension of Evil (Book III). 

Also in 2012, her adult fantasy, Curse of Gremdon will be published by Crescent Moon Press.

When not writing, she enjoys reading all types of fiction. Some great literary influences in her life include Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Francine Rivers and J K Rowling.

Her first love, besides her family, reading, and writing, is travel. She's backpacked through Europe, visited orphanages in China, and landed in a helicopter on a glacier in Alaska. 

Social Network Links:

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

Blog

Other Books by Ciara Knight

Battle For Souls Series:

Love's Long Shadow Amazon, ARe, B&N

Rise From Darkness Amazon, ARe, B&N

Fall From Grace Amazon, Are, B&N

Ascension Of Evil - Coming October 2012

The Neumarian Chronicles

Weighted - Coming August 21, 2012

Escapement - Coming early 2013

The Curse of Gremdon Amazon, ARe, B&N

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I am looking forward to reading this book. The cover is not just interesting but also its synopsis. So what are you waiting for? Add this book to your Goodreads shelf ! :)

(Blog Tour) Cover Reveal & Excerpt of Dominion by Melody Manful

 

Dominion by Melody Manful

YA Paranormal

Date Published: 09/20/2012

I Dare You.
Look Over Your Shoulders.
Do You See Them?
They are behind you...
They are always behind you.

Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really, should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?

Buy a copy: Amazon││Book Depository

Excerpt

I should have called the police the moment I woke up, but what was I going to say: “Hello. 911. Help. I think I’m going to die because I had a dream that I died?” Yeah, even in my head I sounded ridiculous.

What happened to me was horrifying. It still is. But you won’t read about it in the newspapers, because it never happened.

“It was only a dream.” That was what everyone kept telling me. Nevertheless, they were wrong. What happened to me wasn’t a dream. I was living it. I died that night. I was murdered in a firestorm.

Yet, where I am, I’m alive.

One single white lie isn’t supposed to bring with it a lifetime of obstacles, right?

Wrong!

I lied. I said ‘Yes,’ when I was supposed to say ‘No’, and that was how I got here.

I committed a crime. Handcuff me. Sentence me to life. Execute me. Trust me, death will be a vacation compared to the punishment I’m serving.

“You’re such a terrible liar, Abigail.” This is what everyone I know says whenever I try to key up a lie. Then again, what does everyone I know, know for sure?  Nothing!

I wasn’t crazy. No, honestly, before I found myself in ‘wackoland’ I was a walking ray of sunshine. Everything in my over-idolized life was perfect.

Until he came.

First, I thought. Finally. Someone to chase away the monsters underneath my bed, but as it turned out, he didn’t come to chase them away. He was it.

My guardian angel.