Hey, It's A Book for "Hiro Loves Kite" by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Book 2, in A Paper Stars Novel

"Hiro Loves Kite"
Genre: Young Adult, Historical.

Price: $4.99 ebook (at time of post)

Book Links: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

- SYNOPSIS -

We offer our wounds and scars. Understanding that’s part of what makes us beautiful.

Nora finally has her beloved sister Frankie back but that’s just the beginning of their struggles. She must now become Kite. A stronger, more independent version of herself. A King. A guardian. 

And Kettle has Kite’s heart. She gives it freely. But as he holds it, dear and close like a lost treasure, something holds him back: A feeling that he doesn’t deserve good things. A looming shadow that threatens to separate them. Kettle must accept that he is also Hiro: A Japanese American with every right to happiness and freedom. 

Because Hiro loves Kite. And Kite won’t wait forever for him to tell her.

But they’re standing on icy ground. As the leverage they had on Kite’s abusive father wavers and life on the street affects Frankie’s health, the challenges threaten to break their bond. 

Snow is gathering at the station doors and doubts are piling high. They must rely on each other. Believe in the magic that got them this far. If they don’t, it’s not just their future in jeopardy but the fates of all the street kids in their care. All the Kings.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<==========>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EXCERPT

Frankie Comes Home… 

Paying for a hot dog in pennies and dimes is embarrassing. Being two pennies short and having the hot dog stand guy take pity on us was completely humiliating. We’re skinny. I just hope the Kings haven’t eaten everything we had stored away.

Without Kin and Keeps, there’s been a little more to go around. My shoulders sag. Now there are more mouths to feed. My fingers scrape the insides of my pockets, searching for a coin that maybe got snagged in the seams. If I turn them inside out, I really will look like a street urchin. I’m the pirate who opens the treasure chest, finds he’s been beat, and opens it again just to rub it in. I snort.

We wait for a large crowd to head for the subway and melt in. Frankie’s eyes are as wide as a sliced moon as we weave and duck. Eyes on each other, hands gripped tightly.

Kite pushes Frankie’s head under the turnstile as I pay with our last coin. She presses her back into me. The smell of faint perfume, the last of her old life, and salt, the new, coming from her hair. As I reach around her to push the stile, a two for one, her breath catches. I let my hand rest on her waist for a second. Let myself imagine we’re a couple on our way home from a shopping trip, and then it falls like so many un-granted wishes into a fountain.

Leaning close to her ear so she can hear me, I hold my breath, thinking inhaling any more of her sweetness may actually kill me. “Ready?”

She nods. Her cheek brushing my lips.

We take our route to the secret door. To the home we now share like kids playing house, only far too real.

Frankie, to her credit, rolls with the punches. Punch one: Hot dogs instead of roast beef and gravy for dinner. Punch Two: Cheating our way through the subway. Punch Three… I knock on the King’s door, and Krow answers. He looks us up and down, slick and distrustful for a moment, then breaks into a grin. “Kettle! Kite!” he shouts. “Kettle and Kite are home.” He stares at my hands. When he sees there’s no food—only a suitcase—he quickly looks away. But there’s no hiding his disappointment.

Frankie squeezes her way through the doorway into the vast, abandoned subway tunnel. My home. My refuge. And now hers. Blinking, she stands on her tiptoes. Lip in teeth. “Holy hell!” she shouts, and several Kings look her way.

Kite flushes pink, then taps her sister’s shoulder. “Frankie!” she chastises. “Language.”

We step inside, and Frankie swings her head from side to side. “I mean tank you, holy hell.”

We both chuckle, eyes connecting over the top of her head.

Punch three: “This is where we’re going to be staying for a while,” Kite’s voice chases after a galloping Frankie as she jumps from bed to bed. She is the spokes of a traveling star. She is the light you can’t catch.

Frankie doesn’t hear her, and Kite runs to catch her sister. I drag the case inside, plonk it on Kin’s bed. Now Kite’s to share with her sister.

Finally, Frankie stops running and presses a palm to her chest as she wheezes. Kite rushes to her, and she puts both hands on her sister’s shoulders. “Are you okay?”

Punch four is for me, and I feel it sock me right in the guts. As I watch them, I know. Like really know that I would do anything to help them. They are instantly and permanently part of this family. And it scares me.

******************************************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---------------------------------------------------------------

Now Available ....

"Nora & Kettle" (Book #1)- Click Here

**Check out My Review Post: Link Here**

Price: $0 FREE (at time of post)

-------------------------------------_________________________________-----------------------------------

Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Author Links: Amazon Page, Website,  Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter.

Lauren is the bestselling author of THE WOODLANDS SERIES and the award-winning YA novel NORA & KETTLE (Gold medal Winner for Multicultural fiction, Independent Publishers Book Awards 2017).
She has a Health Science degree and an honors degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. A full time writer, hapa and artist, Lauren lives in the tucked away, Adelaide hills with her husband and three children.

Hey, It's A Book Blitz for "Breaker and the Sun" by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

 by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Book 2, in the Paper Stars Novels

"Breaker and the Sun"
Genre: Young Adult, Historical. 325 pages.

Price: $3.99 ebook (at time of post)

Book Link: Click Here

- SYNOPSIS -

Times means nothing. It’s just the sun and moon changing places. New from Lauren Nicolle Taylor, the best-selling author of Nora and Kettle, comes a fresh take on a classic tale. 

Breaker Van Winkle is a recently returned Vietnam vet, struggling with PTSD and the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life with his mother. Sunny is a high-achieving eighteen-year-old Chinese-French immigrant who fled Vietnam during the war. Sunny is usually as cheerful as her name implies, but she has her struggles too. Haunted by violent memories of the bombing that killed her parents, and chafing under the rule of her eccentric grandmother, she finds solace deep in the Catskills, at a place she calls the Ugly Tree. 

When Breaker stumbles upon Sunny and the Ugly Tree, things start to change. They are drawn to each other, and feel called to the tree. As they spend more time together and their relationship deepens, they notice that their time at the tree is becoming twisted somehow. Sunny’s mind yawns and her ambitions begin to slip away. Breaker feels safe and carefree, his memories finally burying themselves in the distant past. They are being lulled toward a tempting, peaceful sleep—but there is a cost to this magical serenity, and it may be more than either of them can bear…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<============>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EXCERPT

BARGAIN BOWLS

SUNNY

Walking up the stairs, I pause and bend down, plucking some stubborn weeds from the hard earth. I shake the dirt from them and look at the struggling roots before tossing them in the garden bed. Is he just a jerk? Seems like there must be more to it than that. At least, that’s what I’d like to believe.

I sigh, wishing I could be like Cara sometimes. To stop searching for the reasons behind things and just accept the world for what it is and all the jerks in it. 

The smell of garlic and peanut oil seeps from the front porch, luring me inside and throwing my thoughts into the frying pan. I walk up, my foot hovering over the last cracked bit of peeling concrete. I open my ears and smile wide as I listen to the cackling and coughing coming from within.

“You love my voice, eh?” Ama shouts as metal clatters in musical harmony. 

“I love you to shut up!” Gung grumbles. 

Ama starts humming out of tune. I can picture Gung’s surly expression. His eyes following her around the room like they’re trying to decipher one tiny particle of the code that makes her, but then he’ll give up. We always give up.

I take off my shoes and open the door. 

I’m looking at my rainbow-striped socks when a white china bowl comes flying at my knees. I jump out of the way, and the bowl hits the doorframe and bounces off without breaking. “Ama! What the he…heck?” I manage to avoid saying hell before my intensely religious grandmother slaps me. 

“See, George! Doesn’t break.” She throws another bowl my way like a Frisbee, and I sidestep as it skitters across the cork floor with a clanging marble kind of sound. 

I giggle and step into the lounge, kissing Gung on the cheek, inhaling his sweet tobacco smell just as he runs a hand through his thinning hair and shouts at Ama, “You crazy woman!” 

“It’s Corr Relle!” She says it like it’s two words, not one, and like that should explain her throwing crockery. My eyes turn to the kitchen and the dining set strewn across the floor. Ama stands on her tiptoes in the small spaces between the overlapping plates and bowls, knees bent as if she’s considering jumping out of the mess she’s created.

I put my hand up to stop her. “Ama, let me help you pick all this up.” I kneel and start stacking the plates. 

“Twenty-five percent off, Sun,” she whispers, squatting down on her haunches to help me. She has the balance of a gymnast, leaning her thighs against the back of her calves with ease. Whenever I try to do that, I fall backward. But that could also be because she usually tries to knock me over with the end of a broom. 

Ama grins, all red lipstick and white powder, and I smirk. She looks half like a Geisha and half like a forgotten Beatle with her died black hair and pageboy cut. 

Gung coughs and strains his ears to hear us. “How much you pay for all this?”

Ama winks at me and lies, “Ten dollars the lot.”

He accepts this, although I’m sure he suspects she’s lying. 

After we rise, she places a bowl in front of me at the counter, serving up some sweet corn soup. I lift the spoon to my mouth. 

She asks, “How was rest of day at work. Make any tips?”

“Only from that one guy, you know, the weird one,” I mumble.

She shrugs, turning her back to me to rattle a frying pan on the hob.

I take a sip, swallow, stall… 

I reach for my spoon again, and Ama grabs my wrist. “You mean the army man who gave you hating eyes because you Eurasian?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at me.

I wonder what she’ll say. I never know with her. What side she’ll pick.

“Yeah, that one,” I start, looking to Gung. He has angled his whole body my way, but he hasn’t deemed this conversation worthy of getting all the way out of his chair. I feel more comfortable addressing him. “Though I don’t think it’s because I’m Eurasian, Ama. I think it’s just because I look Asian.”

Ama snaps to attention, grasping my chin and pulling it toward her fierce eyes. “Nothing wrong with way you look. You beautiful Eurasian girl.” She traces under my eyes with her wrinkled finger. “Eyes like watermelon seeds…”

I smile and try to pull back. “He’s a Vietnam veteran. Maybe I reminded him of something bad,” I mutter, defending the guy. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I doubt he’ll come back in again, and I got to keep his change.”

Ama turns to Gung and says proudly, “I gave him my finger. The middle one! But then…he is soldier.” She sighs very loudly. Everything exaggerated. “Maybe we can be generous to him.”

I roll my eyes. Gung rolls his eyes too. The way she flips back and forth is exhausting. 

“Are you all right, Sun?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Nothing a Douglas can’t handle,” I say proudly, sitting up straighter in my seat.

“I saw you roll the eyes at me, Sunny. Rolling around like marble in bowl.” Ama waggles her finger at me, dangerously tipping into a temper. “American soldiers save your life. You should be grateful.”

I know. I remember.

But it wasn’t this exact soldier. It wasn’t his hand that reached for me in the rubble. 

“Maybe when you doctor, you fix all the soldiers,” she announces, and I bow my head to look like I’m agreeing with her.

First, I need to fix what’s wrong with me. 

Gung flicks on the TV, turning up the volume and trying to stop the conversation from happening. The one about college and where I’m going to go, but Ama’s not that easily distracted tonight. 

She comes around the counter to stand in front of me. I look up from where I sit on my stool. “Ama. S’il vous plaît. Please. Can we not have this conversation? I don’t have to decide just yet.”

Gung clears his throat and speaks, softly but firmly. “Annie. Leave the girl in peace. Let her enjoy her good fortunes for one day.”

Ama glares at Gung, and then her gaze settles on me. “You lucky I listen to Gung.”

Gung snorts and waves her over to watch Wheel of Fortune. 

I know I’m lucky.

EXCERPT 2

ONE GOOD MEMORY

BREAKER

An older man in full uniform approaches us, looking stern and judgmental. He frowns at Tien, and I feel like I want to stand and defend him. Tien stands and salutes the older man, whose crinkly face cracks into a smile. “No need to stand on ceremony here, Tien,” he says gruffly, ruffling his spiky black hair. Then he looks at me. “Don’t let his looks fool you! Tien will take care of you. He’s one of the good guys.”

I frown then. Not sure how to take that. Tien doesn’t seem to mind though.

When the old guy is gone, I nudge Tien. “Are you cool with that? I mean, shit, this must be a little awkward for you sometimes,” I mutter, watching all the white men strolling between groups, their uniforms in varying states of spit and polish.

He shrugs. “It was at first. And yeah, looking like I do, I have to work harder at getting some people to accept me, trust me, but once you know me, well…” He gulps down the rest of his coffee and crushes the cup in his hand. “You can’t help but love me!”

It doesn’t seem fair that he has to work harder. “Doesn’t seem right, man,” I say, shaking my head.

Tien knocks my leg with his knee. “Nope, it isn’t. But what you just said. That right there is enough of a reason to keep trying. Things will change. Name by name. Face by face. I like you already, Breaker!” He’s intoxicatingly hopeful.

I run a hand through my hair. Who would have thought I’d be on this side of the argument?

Tien knocks my knee again. His laugh is full of light. Not sunshine exactly. More like the light from a cluster of stars. It sparkles with magic.

Heart steady. A smile, tinted green, but a smile just the same.

The sun hits the sand, and it sparkles. Palm trees bristle in the warm breeze. If I squint, if I look past the stacks of wooden crates piled on the beach, the dirty men draped over them, it looks like a postcard.

I snap that image for later.

Booze is poured into tin cups, and we sip. We wipe our brows of sweat and tell stories, swap the most mundane details of our lives with each other, building something. This foundation we have to rely on.

Kicking my shoes off, I bury my toes in the sand, watching it cascade over my white, shriveled skin. My feet look like they’ve been in a bath for hours.

I’m staring at them when a disk with colored feathers sprouting from it lands at my feet.

I look up into the expectant grin of a kid, about the same age as Red. He beckons me with his hand, asking me to join the game he’s playing with his friends.

Sarge nods an okay.

Towering over these little Vietnamese kids, I jog to where they’re playing. Quickly, I realize the aim of the game is to keep the feathered disk in the air using whatever I can.

The kids are amazing, back-flipping, twisting, slapping at it with their hands and feet. I try to keep up, and they laugh but encourage me to keep trying.

We’re just kids, playing a game.

Our shouting rattles across the waves. We kick and slap at the ball, we laugh when someone falls over, but offer a hand to help them back up.

My smile cracks open my chest as some fear spills out onto the sand to be collected by the sea.

Some of the other guys join us, and we play until it’s too dark to see.

The sun sprays red and orange over the water, and the kid who invited me slaps my back and winks. He hands me the feathered disk and runs away, laughing and shouting at his friends.

Tien taps my back gently. “Breaker. Where’d you go?”

My mouth feels strange, turned up into a smile.

I’d forgotten about that kid. That good memory.

“Sorry. I was just remembering something,” I mutter.

“Must’ve been a good something,” Tien says, pointing at my mouth.

I chuckle. “Yeah, it was.”

EXCERPT 3

First Meeting

SUNNY

Ama drives like a distracted demon, reminding me again that I need to go for my license. She waits until the last moment to turn and then pulls the wheel hard, swinging the car out and making me feel like my lungs are strapped into the backseat and my stomach is hiding in the trunk. I hold the side arm of the door and clutch my heart for the full half-hour journey. 

When we arrive at the grocery store, she slams the handbrake up before applying the footbrake. We lurch forward and then shoot back into the headrests. Once parked, she turns to stare at me, her teeth showing streaks of red lipstick. She holds out her hand. “Give me discount card,” she demands.

I fish it out of my wallet with a sigh. “You can’t bargain at the grocery store, Ama. Okay?”

She fixes her hair and slaps the steering wheel. “Ah baik! Too many rules from you. Can’t bargain. Can’t go to college in New York. Can’t sleep.”

I roll my eyes with my back turned. I know it’s hard for her. As a consulate brat, I spent a great deal of my childhood traveling with my parents between Asia, England, and France. But my grandparents had lived their whole life in Malaysia until the incident. And although they jumped at the chance to come here, I don’t think they realized how different it would be. 

I think my mother always bridged that gap for them. The one between the Western world and their own.

I instantly feel bad for rolling my eyes and link my arm with hers. She leans her head on my shoulder briefly before charging ahead. I trail after her, always scared of what she might do next.

My manager gives me a wary look when we walk through the doors. He knows Ama all too well. He follows a few paces behind her, ready to stop her squeezing the peaches too hard or testing the bounce of the citrus. 

I catch Cara’s eyes as she looks up from her cash register, and she gives me a quick wave and a smile. Her eyes are questioning. I try to somehow communicate with my eyebrows that I got in to Stanford. She adds up her customer’s total, hands them a docket, and then looks back to me. I nod, grinning widely.

“Oh my God!” she shouts, covering her mouth and apologizing to the man trying to pay her. She giggles and hands him his change, making all sorts of strange, excited faces in my direction while she bounces up and down at her station. 

I go out the back and punch in my timecard, one eye on Ama through the window in the door as she fills her trolley with out-of-date frozen yogurt.

When I come out, a tall, scruffy man bumps into my shoulder. He doesn’t look up or even apologize. Just keeps walking down the aisle like he didn’t even see me.

I’m about to yell out when I notice his army greens, and I suppress my reaction. Bursts of light shatter before my eyes and I blink, trying to shake that rubble from my hair. I reach out to steady myself against the shelf laden with Lucky Charms and Coco Pops and take a deep breath. The cool white wire shudders under my grip, and I cough. Dust. Blood. Light. One arm clad in army green, reaching for me, pulling me up and out of the hole.

I squint and focus on the normal things. The monkey on the cereal box. The little leprechaun waving his golden spoon…

Kez, the manager, clears his throat behind me. “Sunny,” he says, his voice brushing away the dust and bringing me back to fluorescent lights and beige linoleum floors. “I need you at the checkout.”

Shaking my head, I whisper, “Désolée. Sorry, Kez.” I wipe the sweat from my forehead. “I’ll be right there.”

He pretends to rearrange stock nearby as I collect myself. 

I take a deep breath, glance once more at the friendly cereal leprechaun, and move to the front. 

Once I’m sitting on my stool, staring at the cash register, I feel okay. I need to focus on the good things. NYU. Stanford. A new bed.

Cara slams the drawer shut on her register and checks for customers, then turns to me. “Did you get the scholarship?”

I grin, my smile a half moon hooked over my ears. “Uh-huh.”

Cara wiggles in her seat and squeals. “Yes! I knew you would, ya smart cow!”

I snort.

Ama sidles up to Cara’s register. “At least she no sound like stuck pig!” she says with a wicked grin as she pokes Cara in the side with her pointy fingernail, tickling her between her ribs.

Cara squeals some more, and she does kind of sound like a pig.

“Oh, Annie, stop!” Cara giggles while trying to reach for the yogurt. 

Ama cackles like a witch and leans in to pinch Cara’s plump face. “Such nice dimples!” Then she shoots me a nasty look. “Sunny too thin for dimples.” Like dimples are a necessary feature and I’ve done something wrong by not having them.

I ignore her and ask Cara, “So what about you?” 

Cara laughs as she packs Ama’s groceries into a bag. “Vassar, baby!”

“That’s so great, Cara.” After I congratulate her, I wait for Ama to respond.

She doesn’t, which means I’m going to hear about it later. Vassar is in New York. Just over a hundred miles away as opposed to thousands.

Cara blushes. She’s worked really hard, and I’m proud of her. “No scholarship or anything, but still… My folks are super happy about it.”

Ama pats Cara on the shoulder. “I been tutoring you for one year now with your French, and you smart girl. You good girl, good daughter too, Cara. Staying close to your family.”

And there it is.

I’m about to snap back at her when the guy in army greens approaches Cara’s counter. Since she’s still busy counting through Ama’s pile of quarters, I wave him over. He shakes his head and holds his place. Ama turns around and faces him, and he takes a step back from her. 

“Sir,” I say with a smile. “She’s going to take a while. Let me serve you.”

He sighs loudly, his broad shoulders pulling up and releasing violently. Reluctantly, he comes to my counter, slamming down a loaf of bread, milk, and a bunch of candy bars like they are about to bite him.

Staring at the black strip in front of us, he mutters, “A pack of smokes.”

“Which brand?” I ask.

“Any,” he snarls.

I jump a little, and he looks up at me. It’s a quick flash of regret balled with sadness that turns to fire like the click of a lighter. I find it hard to look away, his hatred linked to my gaze in chains. I grab a pack of Marlboros and add it to the total. “I, uh, that will be seven thirty-six, sir,” I stutter. “Do you want me to bag…?” I don’t get to finish as he’s already thrown a ten on the counter, grabbed his stuff, and is stalking toward the front door. 

“Keep the change,” he spits. 

The air feels heavy, not with dust for once, but with hate. Cara stares at me, and Ama is starting to turn red hot. 

I clench my fists and relax them, clench my fists and relax. I’ll never get used to it. The hate thrown at me simply because of the way I look. I swallow dryly and click the drawer closed, separating out the change and putting it in the tip jar to share with the others. 

Ama tries to catch up to him, running out the open door, but I can see out the glass that he’s almost running down the street. Like he can’t stand to be within a mile of someone like me, like both of us. 

Tears burn the back of my eyes. I kick the inside of my counter, bruising my toes. I can’t let this get to me. I won’t.

Ama gives a rude gesture to his disappearing back, and I laugh at the image of this little Chinese woman standing in the parking lot, flipping the bird with a bag of out-of-date yogurt in one hand.

I shout out to her, “Ama. Arrêtez! Stop! He’s a vet,” and watch her lower her arms slowly, rigidly, her temper flaring like wings wanting to fly.

 

******************************************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---------------------------------------------------------------

Now Available ....

"Nora & Kettle" (Book #1)- Click Here

**Check out My Review Post: Link Here**

Price: $3.03 (at time of post)

-------------------------------------_________________________________-----------------------------------

Author's Bio:

Author Links: Amazon Page, Website, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter.

Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology.

She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing. 

She is a 2014 Kindle Book Awards Semi-finalist and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist.

Friday Favs: "Nora & Kettle" by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Genre: Young Adult, Historical. 355 pages. 

Price: $3.99 ebook (at time of post)

Publisher & Date: Clean Teen Publishing. February 29, 2016.

Book Link: Click Here

Listed Rating:  . 7

Price I Paid: $0.99 on May 1, 2016

My Rating:  

My Thoughts: The Street Kings of Nowhereland.
         To say this novel is brilliant feels to light-handed a compliment compared to how well crafted the story was written. The author, Lauren Nicolle Taylor, did a masterful job entwining history with an old childhood tale while still hitting on key subjects that translate to contemporary issues a reader can easily understand or relate too. Both lead characters are the epitome of resilience and after reading this novel I definitely can't wait for more of Nora & Kettle.
         Always looking to the night sky Nora Deere, is not afraid of the dark but is afraid of what comes in the dawn. The terror Nora feels doesn't come in her dreams, but is a person in her waking hours who should be loving and protecting of her. So when the unthinkable happens and the one person that kept most of the danger at bay dies, Nora knows her life will only be harder to endure. The only saving grace for Nora is her little sister Frankie, whom Nora continually sacrifices herself for in order to keep her out of their abusers path. However, one punishment was too much and when trying to escape Nora ends up finding herself alone and running from all she knew. Kettle has been running his whole life, never having a place to call home. When Kettle was taken to a Japanese internment camp as a child and given a pseudo family, but when his adopted mother died and the war finished, his adopted brother Kin and him decide to run from the soldiers during reassignment. Being on their own Kettle and Kin find their own way on the streets while hiding from the authorities. The brothers take in other street kids to form a family of sorts who help one another in a world that has forgotten or been cruel to them. So when Kettle stumbles upon Nora who seems like any other helpless street kid abused by the world, he offers her his help. The connection these two form will have lasting effects on each other both ideologically and emotionally; especially when they choose to team up and confront the demons that plague them.
       Overall, amazing read! It's no secret that I love history so any novel with the purpose of expounding on a historical moment I'm definitely interested in reading. Having the characters go through so much set in America post World War 2 is a hard setting to write in, but this author does it wonderfully. Nora's life is heartbreaking to read about, but I absolutely love her character and strength. So much growth occurs for Nora that you go through all her moments with a hope that in the end she gets a HEA, because she deserves some happiness after all she has endured. Ugh, I honestly cried more than once reading Nora's chapters and her words are tragically poetic. Then there is Kettle who is absolutely the hero. Yes, Kettle too is faced with problems, but he is definitely the hero and glue to the group of lost children. Kettle is in selfless and caring which are welcoming traits for Nora to find in a person after surviving hell at home. Now one last thing, I absolutely loved the dual perspective from Kettle and Nora, it completely helped bind me to them on a emotional level as their lives developed and turned until they collided. So if you are looking for a story about an abused girl lost emotionally finding a boy hiding and trying to survive in the world, who form a bond and try to fly, then this novel is definitely worth a read. 

Hey, It's A Book Blitz for "The King in the Stone" by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

 by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

Sequel to Two Moon Princess,

"The King in the Stone"
Genre:  Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical. 299 pages.

Price: $3.99 ebook (at time of post)

Book Link: Click Here

- SYNOPSIS -
A full moon,

A silver key,

And the unbending passion of two young lovers will bring hope to a defeated kingdom and, through their sorrow, deliver a king who will change its fate.

Vivid visions have haunted Andrea since her arrival in northern Spain. In her visions, the ruins of the medieval village she’s excavating comes alive, and, around the fires burning in the no longer buried hearths, she sees people dressed in furs sharpening old fashioned swords.

Even more upsetting for her that the headaches her visions leave is the fact that Julián appears in them—Julián, the king from her world whose rejection she is trying hard to forget.

But when a slide bury Andrea under the mountain, Julian comes searching for her. Soon after they are reunited under the mountains, the full moon opens a portal and sends them back a thousand years into the past, to a time right after the Spaniards have been defeated by the Arabian invaders.

Separated by a bitter winter, Andrea and Julian are caught in opposite sides in the battle between the Spanish last unconquered settlements and the Arabian army. A battle for survival that will determine the fate of a kingdom and demand of them the ultimate sacrifice: As the Arabs close on the mountains, Julián makes a decision that will break Andrea’s heart and change them forever.

 ******************************************************************************

VIDEO TRAILER

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

In the following excerpt from The King in the Stone, Julián makes a fateful decision.
I don’t know how long I remained by the cliff staring down at Andrea’s broken body, so unnaturally still in her white shroud of snow. I don’t know how long I remained by the cliff lost in a world of my own. A world beyond feelings, beyond reason. A world in which, I came to believe, time could flow backwards, and as long as I didn’t move, didn’t breathe, it was still possible to reverse its course. Andrea would rise from the ledge and climb to my side, and her blood would be warm again inside her body and not a red stain over the snow.
I don’t know how long I remained by the cliff dreaming impossible dreams. Then somewhere down in the valley, a horse neighed and broke the spell.
I shivered. The rush of the fight had left me by now, and the bitter wind blowing through the mountain had covered my body with a frozen dust. If I didn’t leave soon I would freeze to death. Forcing my stiff legs to move, I turned my back to the ledge and started walking.
I didn’t remember going back into the cave and retrieving the sword and the knife from the bear’s body. I didn’t remember grabbing the cloak or picking up Andrea’s arrow from the ground or walking down the mountain. The next thing I remember is someone calling my name.
I shook my head to clear my mind and looked around. I was back in the oak grove where we had tethered the horses, and Irene stood in front of me.
I let go of the hilt of the sword I’d instinctively grabbed, and nodded to the girl whose waif-like face was tense with fear.
“Julián?”
I tried to talk. But no words came.
Irene moved closer and reached for my face. “You’re hurt, Julián. Let me help you.”
“There is no time. We must go. Now. Get the horses ready. I’ll get Theodorica.”
Turning my back on her, I entered the copse.
Her feet and hands bound, a dirty rag over her mouth, Theodorica was sitting on a stump. Her eyes full of contempt didn’t leave mine as I approached her, and when I removed her gag, she spat at me.
In anger, I lifted her and held her against the closest tree. Theodorica struggled like a wild animal trying to break free, and as I fought her back, something snapped inside my mind, turning the throbbing ache at Andrea’s loss into a feral urge to make Theodorica mine. Forcing her face still with one hand, I kissed her. I kissed her long and hard. Not because I cared for her, but because Andrea was dead and she alive, and in the aftermath of death we crave life.
I kissed her out of pain, out of anger and despair. Out of hate. I kissed her until her body grew willing under mine. Only then, I pulled back.
Without a word, I cut her bonds.
Theodorica stared at me.
“You got your wish, my lady,” I said in answer to the question she had not asked. “I’m coming with you to the Arab’s camp.”

*********************************************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Now Available ....

Two Moon Princess (Book #1)- Click Here

Price: $3.99 (at time of post)

-------------------------------------_________________________________-----------------------------------

Carmen Ferreiro Esteban

Author Links: Amazon Page, Website, Goodreads, Facebook.

Carmen Ferreiro Esteban is the author of the medieval fantasy Two Moon Princess (Tanglewood Press 2007), and Immortal Love (Crimson Romance 2012). Her own translation into Spanish of Immortal Love can be found under the title Bécquer eterno.

Carmen was born in Galicia (northern Spain) and went to college in Madrid, where she finished her Ph.D. in Biology. She worked as a researcher in Spain and California, before moving to Pennsylvania, where she now works as a writer, editor and translator.

Hey, It's A Blog Tour for "Forget Me Not" by Allison Whitmore

by Allison Whitmore

"Forget Me Not"
Genre:  Young Adult, Historical, Romance. 368 pages.

Price: $3.99 ebook (at time of post)

Book Link: Click Here

- SYNOPSIS -

Theodora “Teddi” Donovan and Calvin Wynne have always hated each other. They didn't have a choice after Teddi's bootlegger father killed Calvin's and left them both orphaned. The scandal has fueled gossip in quiet, quaint Brookhurst, New York, for over a decade. When a friendship develops between them as teenagers, they are ridiculed and shunned by the strict society that dictates life in their town. As they grow older, friendship turns into love, and Teddi and Calvin have to choose between their future and the specter of their past. Spanning continents and decades, Forget Me Not is a coming-of-age story about truth, self-reliance, and the freeing power of love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Rating:  

My Thoughts: This Novel Is Definitely Unforgettable.

         Wonderful long read that's great for brightening up a gloomy day. What started as a Juliet-Romero type story turned into so much more hitting topics racism, social status, misplaced intentions, young love, betrayal and so much more. Though the story takes place in the past the situations and the characters troubles mirror many contemporary issues today.

         In the little town of Brookhurst, New York Theodora “Teddi” Donovan and Calvin Wynne are set on a path to be forever entwined. One horrible tragedy left both Teddi and Calvin orphans, but their life circumstances changed in ways that placed them in opposite social settings. Teddi was taken in by her grandparents and was groomed into being the perfect young lady, while Calvin was sent to the orphanage for boys where he found out how to fend for himself. Calvin knew he should hate Teddi for what was done to his family, but when they accidentally become friends he finds she is someone he can't live without. Teddi and Calvin go through tests of time apart, maturity and social disapproval before they decide if they're connection is truly worth fighting for despite their family history and secrets.

        Overall, loved this book!! The setting was small town but brought out big problems in a time where the world was literally at war. I loved the development of the characters in having them grow-up and find each other again. Teddi and Calvin's banter was also so cute and Calvin may have been stupid at one time but he knows how to make up for it in the end, ugh in like more than one surprise way that's too perfect. As for Teddi, girl is stubborn but is definitely awesome, so happy she gets her HEA because she deserves it after all she goes through. Oh and the last part of the novel took a great turn in revealing the big secret of how Teddi and Calvin's parents were killed. It's page turning intense! Now my only iffy thing about the book is the POV, it'd change from one paragraph to the other mid moment which after a while you get used to so it didn't really impede my reading. So if you're looking for a story about two people truly destined to be together despite everything and everyone in their way, this novel is a great read.

******************************************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-------------------------------------_________________________________-----------------------------------

Allison Whitmore

Author Links: Amazon Page, Facebook, Website, Twitter, Goodreads.

Allison Whitmore started her first novel, Forget Me Not, one icy morning in her dorm room in Southampton, NY. After many years of teaching high school English, she came back to the novel to rewrite it. Allison comes from a family who loves history and enjoyed immersing herself in the research that brought Teddi and Calvin’s world to life. She lives in her hometown, Los Angeles, California.

Hey, It's A Book Blitz for "Nora & Kettle" by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Book 1, in A Paper Stars Novels
"Nora & Kettle"
Genre: Young Adult, Historical. 355 pages.

Price: $4.99 ebook (at time of post)

Book Link: Click Here

- SYNOPSIS -

What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason? 

Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to—the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having “one drop of Japanese blood in them”—things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys. 

 Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Nora—the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change. 

 For months, they’ve lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window. 

 In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away. 

 Set in 1953, NORA AND KETTLE explores the collision of two teenagers facing extraordinary hardship. Their meeting is inevitable, devastating, and ultimately healing. Their stories, a collection of events, are each on their own harmless. But together, one after the other, they change the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Excerpt -

   This is some medieval contest. Teeth gnash, men who smell much too much like men and… fish… grab at each other’s heads and hair, pull each other down and claw at each other’s necks. They are a desperate, scrabbling entity. I stand back from the jostling crowd, wondering whether I can do this. I bite my lip, lock my limbs, and decide it can’t be worse than anything else I’ve experienced. So I take a deep breath and await instruction. 

 “You don’t have to do this,” Kettle says as he edges into the throng from the western side. 

 Yes I do. 

 “I want to,” I say, trying to keep my voice low this time. Kettle chuckles at my attempt to sound like a boy, his blue eyes flashing with excitement. 

    Over the noise, he yells, ducking when a fist comes flying at his shoulder, “You’re small, fast, try to squeeze your way in.” He shoulders his way in and disappears. I hear him shouting underneath a tangle of arms, “If you don’t make it through, wait for me outside.” 

   He doesn’t think I’ll make it. It makes me more determined to prove him wrong. I test a foot on the edge. It instantly gets stepped on. I grimace. 

 Think. 

   I think about a slap coming toward me, my father’s palm aching to mark my cheek red. If I could have avoided it, ducked out of the way, what would I have done? How would I have done it? 

   Each man in this throe of clashing bodies becomes my father. And I’m surprised that instead of wanting to hurt them, all I want to do is get through, stand on the inside of the fence where he/they can’t get to me anymore. 

   There are small shadows of space opening up before my eyes, and I hurl toward them, I stop thinking, stop worrying, and just react. Under elbows, between bodies, over large legs trying to stomp on me. There are no walls to be thrown against. No one to protect. There is an escape, a way through for me to find. 

  

   The freedom tastes delicious, salty and hard-earned on my tongue. 

   I’m nearly there. The fence vibrates, ringing for me. Calling—You’re close, so close. My hand stretches to the wire and I grab at it, missing as my head suddenly jerks back. Someone’s fingers dig into my collar and pull me backward. The top button on my shirt presses into my neck and I can’t breathe, a strange cacking, gurgling noise coming from the back of my throat. I turn around to meet the owner of the hand. A small, twisted man, a skeleton almost. My cap tips back and he sees my face clearly, suddenly releasing me. “Sorry, ma’am,” he says. Then he’s scattered behind me like a spilled bag of bones, and I’m thrust forward. 

   The gate slides open and my feet don’t feel like they’re connected to the ground. I’m carried along, through the gap by a sea of muscled, grunting flesh and thrown into the clear, sea air. 

   The guard at the gate claps it shut and shouts at me, “Lucky last, eh?” 

  

   I made it. Me.

******************************************************

- GIVEAWAY-

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-------------------------------------_________________________________-----------------------------------

Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Author Links: Amazon Page, Facebook, Website, Twitter, Goodreads.

Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology. She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing. She is a 2014 Kindle Book Awards Semi-finalist and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist.