Author Interview: Nyrae Dawn

I published my review for Charade by Nyrae Dawn two days ago and I couldn't be more excited for today's post. Nyrae has quickly become one of my favorite authors, because her books are always so fun to read, her characters go through some of the toughest journeys, she writes these amazing guy POV's and she's just a lovely person in general. I contacted Nyrae for an interview about Charade and she agreed immediately. So, yeah. I'm so so so excited to introduce Nyrae and Charade to all of you. Hopefully you'll enjoy! PS. Since I'm at it and I can't recommend this book highly enough, I made a playlist/soundtrack to this book aannnnnddd it's my first time ever, so I'm a little shy about it to say the least, haha. But yeah, I'll show it to you tomorrow:)

Q: Please tell us a little about yourself and your journey of becoming the writer you are today.
A: Hello. Well I'm happily married and have two awesome little girls. I've always loved writing, but it wasn't until I became a stay-at-home mom that I really started to pursue my dream. It took many years, lots of manuscripts, tons of rejection, but I don't regret any of it. It brought me where I am today. 

Q: What is Charade about and why did you feel like this story should be "born" into the world? 
A: It's not even feeling like it has to be born for me, but my characters are so real to me that they come to me with this story and I have to share it with the world. It's almost like it's really happened, but I am just the vessel to share it. Charade is about two broken souls who don't realize how broken they are until they start to put each other together again. 

Q: What inspired you to write Charade? 
A: That's hard to say. It's kind of like my previous answer. The story actually started with Cheyenne. She came to me first and it spiraled from there and I had to get it on paper. I needed to share what to me, was their beautiful love story and story of growth. 

Q: Did you have any fun incidents while writing Charade? 
A: Hmm... that's a good question and I'm bummed I don't have a fun answer. LOL. Nothing out of the ordinary happened while writing it. 

Q: What are Colt and Chey's best attributes as individuals and as a couple? 
A: For Chey I would say her best attribute is her strength and for Colt his ability to love and be there for someone. Together it's their love and loyalty that strikes me. They've been hurt, but neither runs when they find love. When they're in, they're in 100%. 

Q: When I learned that the next book in this series is going to be Adrian's, I did a little happy dance, ha. He is such an interesting character and what I want to know is can you give us some insight on what's about to go down in his life? Any tiny, little excerpts maybe?:)
A: Adrian is a complex guy, IMO. He's a deep thinker and a people watcher. He was very shut off as a young child...a loner, for reasons I can't say, but there is a lot going on beneath the surface that you don't see. 

Q: Which of your books has been your favorite to write so far and why? 
A: That is so hard! Each one I write feels like my favorite at the time, but I do think it really is CHARADE. Their story is deeper and brought out so many different emotions in me. 

Q: Which of the characters from all of your books is the most like you and in which way?  
A: I relate a lot to Annabel [from Measuring Up] in that I'm insecure about body image. 

Q: What are the next goals in you career and what do you look forward to the most? 
A: I'm excited to jump into Adrian's book, FACADE. I just love writing and love sharing my stories with anyone who might want to read them. 

Random: 

Tango or salsa? Salsa 
Cats or dogs? Dogs 
Rain or sunshine? Sunshine 
Original or retelling? Original 
Fantasy or contemporary? Contemporary 
Sebastian or Colt? (Ha. I'm just sneaky that way.) WHAT??? I love them both for different reasons. LOL. I'm a cheater. 

Thank you so much, Nyrae! It was a pleasure and I can't wait to get my hands on Adrian's book:)
Thanks for having me! 

AVAILABLE NOW: What a Boy Wants, What a Boy Needs, Freeing Carter, Measuring Up, Karma Bites  
COMING SOON: Misplaced from Entangled Publishing

Writing has always been Nyrae Dawn’s passion. There have been times in her life where she wasn’t able to chase that dream the way she desired, but she always found her way back to telling stories. One of her loves has always been writing about teens. There’s something so fresh and fun about the age that she loves exploring. Her husband says it’s because she doesn’t want to grow up. She doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing and luckily for her, he doesn’t either. Nyrae gravitates toward character-driven stories. She loves going on emotional journeys with characters whether it be reading or writing. And yes, she’s a total romantic at heart and proud. Nyrae resides in sunny Southern California with her husband (who still makes her swoon) and her two awesome kids. When she’s not with her family, you can be pretty sure you’ll find her with a book in her hand or her laptop and an open document in front of her. Nyrae Dawn also writes adult romance under the name Kelley Vitollo.

Meet Nyrae

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Tour: "Stalk Me (Keatyn Chronicles #1)" by Jillian Dodd Excerpt and Giveaway

This is the first time EVER that I have taken part of a tour. Excited is an understatement at the moment, heh. Okay, so today I get to share a scene from Stalk Me by Jillian Dodd. It's very umm.. How to put it. Juicy? So I advise you to take a deep breath and get a bottle of cold water near you, you might need it. #justsayin' Hope you enjoy the excerpt and be sure to take part in the giveaway(s) and try your luck! Oh, and before I forget, throughout the tour Stalk Me is available for only 0.99$ and the second book in the series was released yesterday, November 28th.

Title: Stalk Me (Keatyn Chronicles, #1)

Author:  Jillian Dodd

Genre: Romance

Age Group: Mature Young Adult

Release date: September 1, 2012

Social Media links:

website | pinterest | twitter | facebook fan page | goodreads 

amazon author page | Keatyn Chronicles fan page | Keatyn Chronicles on Twitter

Purchase:Amazon | B&N | Kobo | (Also available through iTunes) 

Gossip girl meets Hollywood in this new series by That Boy author, Jillian Dodd.

Keatyn has everything she ever dreamed of. Her life is following the script she wrote for the perfect high school experience. She’s popular, goes to the best parties, dates the hottest guy, and sits at the most coveted lunch table.

She’s just not sure she wants it anymore.

Because really, things aren’t all that perfect.
Her best friend is threatening to tell everyone her perfect relationship is a scam.
Her perfect boyfriend gets drunk at every party they go to.
It’s exhausting always trying to look and act perfect.
And deep down, she isn’t sure if she has any true friends.

To add to the drama, her movie star mom’s long-time fan has turned stalker.
An older man is flirting with her and telling her they should make a movie together.
And she’s crushing on an adorable surfer. Dating a guy like him would mean committing social suicide.

So she writes a new script. One where all the pieces of her life will come together in perfect harmony.
But little does she know, there’s someone who will do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The Excerpt

First his hands were on my back. Then they trailed down my arms. Then he pulled my ass in close to him and put his leg between mine. I was grinding on his leg and was as close to his body as I could possibly get. My hands were low on his back, practically begging him to get closer. But it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get him close enough, and all I could think about was getting him into bed.

When he put his mouth on my neck and slowly sucked on my skin, I felt like I might explode with desire. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone more. His tongue slowly slid up my neck, and I could feel his warm breath on my ear. “I can’t wait,” he whispered into my ear.

Then the club faded away, and we were outside in an alley. He pushed me up against a brick wall, reached under my skirt, and ripped a hole in my pantyhose. Then he pushed my panties aside and was inside me before I could even take a breath. I never once worried about anyone seeing us in the alley and, as turned on as I was, I’m pretty sure I didn’t care.

My insides are still throbbing.

I relive the dream in my head over and over. The way I was grinding on his leg. The way he dragged me into the alley. The sound it made when he ripped my hose. The ravenous way he was kissing me. 

The Giveaway 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Also, be sure to follow the rest of the tour here. There are lots of fun and smexy excerpts, interviews, promo posts and reviews to read :)

Jillian Dodd grew up on a farm in Nebraska, where she developed a love for Midwestern boys and Nebraska football. She has drank from a keg in a cornfield, attended the University of Nebraska, got to pass her candle, and did have a boy ask her to marry him in a bar. She met her own prince in college, and they have two amazing children, a Maltese named Sugar Bear, and two Labrador puppies named Camber Lacy and Cali Lucy.

She is the author of the That Boy Trilogy and The Keatyn Chronicles Series.

Jillian Dodd | Facebook | Twitter

Review: Charade by Nyrae Dawn

Title: Charade (The Game Series #1)
Author: Nyrae Dawn
Published: October 22nd 2012
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Nineteen-year-old Cheyenne tries to portray the perfect life to mask the memories of her past. Walking in on her boyfriend with another woman her freshman year in college threatens that picture of perfection.

Twenty-one-year-old Colt never wanted college and never expected to amount to anything, but when his mom's dying wish is for him to get his degree, he has no choice but to pretend it's what he wants too.

Cheyenne needs a fake boyfriend to get back at her ex and Colt needs cash to take care of his mom, so they strike a deal that helps them both. But what if Cheyenne’s past isn’t what she thought? Soon they’re trading one charade for another—losing themselves in each other to forget about their pain. The more they play their game, the more it becomes the only thing they have that feels real. Both Cheyenne and Colt know life is never easy, but neither of them expect the tragedy that threatens to end their charade and rip them apart forever.

Recently more authors have started to write from male characters’ perspective. Nyrae Dawn’s first book What a Boy Wants was from Sebastian’s POV. It was a pretty decent read overall, but not quite there yet. Charade, however, is a whole different story. It was written from dual POV and I think this is the best Nyrae has written so far and I was simply amazed, fascinated and intrigued by this story and these characters. Let me tell you why.

I run over to the shed. Each step I take I wonder what the hell I’m doing. This girl isn’t my problem. I played her little game with her and now it’s over. Still, I creep around the back of the small building and when I see her huddled on the ground, I don’t turn away.
“Hey…it’s me.” Fuck. She probably doesn’t just recognize my voice in the dark. “Colt.” I don’t want her to trip out. Something serious has happened to this girl. I don’t know who she is, but she’s not who I thought.
“Go away.”
I smirk. No matter what happens to her she still doesn’t have a problem being pissed at me. “Not gonna happen.”
 I bend down. I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do or not, but I touch her shoulder. My hand starts to tremble from her. She’s shaking like fucking crazy. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

The story kicks off by Cheyenne finding out that her boyfriend is cheating on her. She does what every sane girl in her place would do – she breaks up with Gregory and tells him to shove it, because she has a potential love interest already waiting for her. That last part is not exactly true though and now she needs to prove her point by finding one to play that charade and be his beloved one in front of Gregory and his friends. Colt has crossed paths with Gregory before and even though she and Chey don’t get off to a great start, more like a really bad one, he ends up being the one to participate in this charade to the world, because he needs the money Chey’s offering and it’d be a great way to rub it in Greg’s face.  

These two unlikely allies soon realize they’ve gotten into a game more serious and emotional than they could have ever imagined. Chey’s past haunts her night ‘n day and under that strong attitude lies a broken heart left by the person who should have loved her most. Colt, on the other hand, has demons from his past as well as present: his Father was a screw up drug dealer so Colt thinks he is no better than his Father although he tries to be, because his Mother is dying from cancer and he doesn’t want her to feel like he is letting her down in any way.

Well.. You know a book is that good if you’ve completely bawled your eyes out for the past 45 minutes or so and realize you still don’t want this to end. I wasn’t sure how it would end and if there’d be a HEA or not until I read the last chapter. I can't even confirm or deny the HEA, all I can say is that it was stunningly executed and I can proudly tell you that this novel punched me in the gut as well as gave me hope with its powerful messages. I was not expecting that from Nyrae at all. I knew she was talented, but this just blew me away. I loved every single moment of this book no matter how devastating it was.

“No one makes me feel the way you do and I need you. Maybe it’s not good to need people and maybe that makes me weak. I don’t know, but I know I need you. I want you. You push me when I need it and give in when I need that too. Your strength gives me strength and I want to do that for you too.”

This book had emotional package for days. It held my attention captive with its meaningful words, developed plot and layered characters who took a piece after piece of my heart until there was nothing left to take and they stuck with me even after I had finished the book. I’m getting emotional even writing this and I completely understand why Nyrae cried (in public, by the way) while writing Charade. If you’ve loved books by Colleen Hoover, Tammara Webber or Jamie McGuire, please, please, pick this up. You won’t regret it! Definitely one of the best contemporary novels I have read so far.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

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Cover Reveal: The Midnight Spell by Rhiannon Frater and Kody Boye

Title: The Midnight Spell
Authors: Rhiannon Frater, Kody Boye
Published: February, 2013
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Best friends since kindergarten, Adam and Christy have always been the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas.  The other kids call Adam gay and Christy a witch.

On both counts the bullies are right.

Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious boy enrolls at school and sets hearts a flutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome football player Ian seems to be going nowhere fast and her witch puberty is making her life miserable.

When a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, the best friends realize that finding a boyfriend is the least of their worries. Soon Adam and Christy will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before, and will again.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the cover, but the story sounds awesome so I'm definitely adding this to my evergrowing TBR pile.

Rhiannon Frater

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater (at) gmail (dot) com.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Kody Boye

Kody Boye was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho. Since his initial publication in the Yellow Mama Webzine in 2007, he has gone on to sell nearly three-dozen stories to various markets. He is the author of the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the dark fantasy novel Blood. His fiction has been described as ‘Surreal, beautiful and harrowing’ (Fantastic Horror,) while he himself has been heralded as a writer beyond his years(Bitten by Books.) He currently lives and writes in the Austin, Texas area.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

The cover reveal was organized by Giselle @Xpressoreads. 

Review: Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Title: Beautiful Chaos (The Caster Cronichles #3)

Authors: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Published: October 18th 2011

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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

Beautiful Creatures for me was a fascinating read, but I got tiresome of Ethan’s inner monologue. I know lots of fans love him, but I think he is just an okay protagonist. I like guy POV’s, but I honestly couldn’t bare being inside Ethan’s head for more than two hours. It got even worse when I read the second book which I didn’t even finish. So how in the world did I end up reading Beautiful Chaos? Don’t ask me, because I can’t answer to your question. All I know is I wanted to know how the story continues (I finished reading Beautiful Darkness via my dear, dear friend Wikipedia) and I wanted to try listening to an audiobook so I decided to give this series one more try. I do not regret it!

“The mortal world is in a state of Beautiful Chaos and destruction, which will ultimately lead to an exquisite end.” 

Beautiful Chaos is literally chaotic. Sometimes authors name their books trying to stay true to this series of name combinations, but Garcia and Stohl have done an outstanding job with Little Brown when it comes to naming these four novels. In addition to being chaotic, it was darker, more twisted, emotional and action-packed. I even got tears in my eyes in one scene with Link and Ridley, but no tears from me while reading the first two.

The narrator in this audiobook did a pretty decent job especially with Amma and aunt Mercy. I didn’t imagine Link (love that kid!!) with that kind of a voice, but it was pretty okay too. I can’t tell you much about the plot, because if you haven’t read the second one, you will be disappointed by the spoilers, so let’s just say that you can expect lots of Abraham, Seraphine, an unexpected romance between two people on the opposite sides (which I was totally happy about) and lots and lots of sneaking around. You don’t know until the very end who will be the one to sacrifice oneself, who is bad, who is good and overall your thoughts will most likely be the kind of “What the heck is going on??”.The first half of the book wasn't that exciting, but when the real action began, it didn't stop until the last sentence. Which brings me to the cliffhanger.

There was a cliffhanger and when I heard the last few words I was like “What? It ends just like that? No, it was just getting really interesting.. -.- “ I guess they need to leave something for the final book which I’m more than eager to read now. I’ve actually grown to like all of these characters in their own way and I’m anxious to see the movie of the first book which comes out in February, 2013. I  think this world Garcia and Stohl have created is absolutely stunning and if the first two didn’t get me on board, then this one most certainly did. 

“Hey, Ethan."
"Yeah?"
"Remember the Twinkie on the bus? The one I gave you in second grade, the day we met?"
"The one you found on the floor and gave me without telling me? Nice."
He grinned and shot the ball. "It never really fell on the floor. I made that part up.” 

If you’re not a fan of this series, but still liked the first book, than try to finish the second one (Have you noticed that a second book is like a curse in a series? I don’t know what’s up with that), because Beautiful Chaos was so, so good. It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a far cry from Beautiful Darkness and I couldn't be happier.

PS. The cover is a major let down though. The other three are so much better..

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Meet Kami Garcia

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Meet Margaret Stohl

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