Giveaway of Becoming (Daughters of Saraqael trilogy) and Guest post!

My good friend and terrific book blogger, Alexia is hosting an amazing author on her blog. Raine Thomas stops by and she has a lot of goodies for you! She is giving away a copy of Becoming: Book One of Daughters of Saraqael Trilogy to one lucky winner! She also has a guest post about how indie authors can better connect with and listen to readers.

You can enter the giveaway here!

How many times has it happened that you’ve wanted a series to continue,  and want the amazing characters the author has developed to keep coming back? I know it happened to me recently. Author Michael J Sullivan published the final book in his ‘Riyria Revelations’ series, and a lot of readers, including me were left distraught. So, hop over to Alexia’s Chronicles and check out the amazing guest post where author Raine Thomas discusses how she listened to readers and continued to write in the world in which her first series was set.

Don’t forget to weigh in on the discussion in the comments here and on Alexia’s blog! Tell us what you think about authors continuing series on the demand of fans. Also tell us about which series you think should have continued and which should have ended sooner!

Here is a list of the amazing goodies you will find on Alexia’s blog. You definitely don’t want to miss this!

1. The awesome giveaway of Becoming: Book One of Daughters of Saraqael Trilogy
2. Guest post by author Raine Thomas, of course
3.  The prologue to Defy: Book One of the Firstborn Trilogy
4. Author bio of Raine Thomas

A here’s a little more about the book:

Becoming (Daughters of Saraqael #1)

Every three years, Amber Hopkins explodes. Okay, not a blown-to-smithereens explosion, but whatever it is always hurts like hell and leaves her life a shambles. She’s already worked her way through five foster placements, and she’s doing whatever she can to avoid getting blasted into a sixth.

As her eighteenth birthday approaches and she feels the strange and powerful energy building, disaster looms. When the inevitable explosion occurs, her life gets its biggest shakeup yet. She’ll not only learn how her fellow foster and best friend, Gabriel, really feels about her, but she’ll discover that she isn’t really without family.

To top it all off, she’ll finally find out why she’s having the power surges: she isn’t entirely human.

Amber must Become, transitioning to another plane of existence and risking the loss of the most important relationship she’s ever had. Her choice will impact the future of an entire race of beings, and will pit her against an enemy that will prey upon her doubt to try and take her very life.

Kind of makes the explosions now seem like a cakewalk.

Related articles

• Becoming by Raine Thomas (talesofbooksandbands.com)
• Author Post & Giveaway (alexiachronicles.blogspot.com)

Review of Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days Book 01) by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Buy on Amazon: Kindle | Paperback

The story of Angelfall is set in a post-apocalyptic period where the angels have begun to bring about the end of the world. However, the humans are ingenious and want to fight back and reclaim the earth. The book starts off with Penryn and her family consisting of her, her mother and her sister, trying to escape to a better place. During this journey, they witness a fight between a number of angels and as Penryn enters the thick of things to protect one of them, her sister gets abducted by one of them. The fight ends with an injured angel whose wings are cut off and stolen, and who is the only source of information for Penryn to find where the angels have taken her sister. This is where their journey begins, with each looking for something really important to them, which keeps them on the path, however difficult it may be.

This book is very different from the other YA books coming out right now. There is no love at first sight, and the girl is not helpless and in constant need of protection. Also, there are no fireworks when the two main characters meet (well, there are, but of a very different kind). This is what makes this book so much better. For a large part of the book, there is a lot of distrust between the main characters, and they work together only because they have to and it is in their best interest to do so. Their journey together is not because of puppy love, but because the circumstances dictate that they stay together, as each needs the other for their own purpose. This is not to say that there is no romance in this book. But it is something that develops naturally over time.

Rapture by Phillip W Simpson Review

Rapture by Phillip William Simpson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in a world where the Biblical prophecy of the Rapture has come true, the story follows the protagonist Sam. Sam is half-demon and-half human, having characteristics of both. He is stronger and faster than most humans, heals faster and is difficult to hurt. He of course has horns protruding from his head, which makes interacting with people a little difficult. Like a demon, he is burned by contact with anything holy and cannot venture near a church. But, he has all the emotions of a human. He is awkward and shy, gets angry and ashamed and feels loyalty and love.

Sam’s entire world revolves around Hikari, his mentor and father-figure and his daughter Aimi. Sam is mainly confined to their house and only steps outside in the dark, or when he is wearing a cap or a hood to cover his horns. Sam has been trained as a warrior right from a very young age and is extremely proficient in using various weapons as well as hand-to-hand combat aided by his inhuman strength and speed. He is portrayed as fumbling his way through almost everything else. He has difficulty expressing himself and is positively disastrous in his interactions with others his age. Sam is in love with Aimi, and she is the only person with whom he interacts somewhat freely. This love story develops throughout the book, and I suspect it will have much larger role to play in later ones.