Cover Reveal: Closed Hearts

Coming May 23rd...

 

Closed Hearts (Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy)

When you control minds, only your heart can be used against you.

Eight months ago, Kira Moore revealed to the mindreading world that mindjackers like herself were hidden in their midst. Now she wonders if telling the truth was the right choice after all. As wild rumors spread, a powerful anti-jacker politician capitalizes on mindreaders’ fears and strips jackers of their rights. While some jackers flee to Jackertown—a slum rife with jackworkers who trade mind control favors for cash—Kira and her family hide from the readers who fear her and jackers who hate her. But when a jacker Clan member makes Kira’s boyfriend Raf collapse in her arms, Kira is forced to save the people she loves by facing the thing she fears most: FBI agent Kestrel and his experimental torture chamber for jackers.

Release Date: May 23rd, 2012

Click Here to sign up for the Virtual Launch Party on May 23rd! There will be prizes, reviews, bonus content, did I mention prizes? Come join the fun!

Praise for Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy)

"Being a fan of dystopian and sci-fi in young adult books this was exactly the type of book I was hoping to fall in love with and absolutely did ...YA readers who love authors like Ally Condie, Veronica Roth, Lauren Oliver and others would be missing out if they failed to pick up Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. Join Kira on her journey to save her fellow mindjackers and potentially change the landscape of her world forever.” — Danielle Smith, book blogger at There’s a Book

“Susan plunges readers into a compelling and frightening world where nearly everyone can read minds when they come of age. The very idea makes me shudder. This is easily one of the best books I've read not only this year, but in recent years.”— Heather McCorkle, author of The Secret of Spruce Knoll

"Susan Kaye Quinn's Open Minds is an edge-of-the-seat YA sci-fi, where 16 year-old Kira dodges psychological bullets from all sides."  — Catherine Stine, author of Fireseed One

Open Minds $2.99 on Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes&Noble, and iTunes

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Susan Kaye Quinn, Author

Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. She pursued a bunch of engineering degrees and worked a lot of geeky jobs, including turns at GE Aircraft Engines, NASA, and NCAR. Now that she writes novels, her business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist" and she doesn't have to sneak her notes anymore. All that engineering comes in handy when dreaming up paranormal powers in future worlds or mixing science with fantasy to conjure slightly plausible inventions. Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as she can handle.

Way too often, you can find Susan on her blog, facebook, and twitter.

Susan’s Other Works:

Open Minds

In His Eyes Anthology (includes Mind Games, a short prequel to Open Minds)

Life, Liberty, and Pursuit (a teen love story)

Full Speed Ahead (short afterstory to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit)

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I love the cover! What about you guys? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Blog Tour: Protected by Cindy M. Hogan

Today, I'm featuring the Watched series by Cindy M. Hogan in celebration of the release of book #2, Protected.

Book 1: Watched

Synopsis from Goodreads:  It takes more than a school trip to Washington, D.C. to change fifteen-year-old Christy's life. It takes murder.

A witness to the brutal slaying of a Senator's aide, Christy finds herself watched not only by the killers and the FBI, but also by two hot boys. She discovers that if she can't help the FBI, who want to protect her, it will cost her and her new friends their lives.

Praise for Watched: "A fantastic read, full of suspense and excitement! Cindy M. Hogan writes brilliantly and she knows just how to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's virtually impossible to just relax reading this book and when you finish you feel as if you've been right there in the midst of it all!" - Kitty Bullard, GMTA review

"Fast paced suspense." - C.K. Bryant, author of Bound

"I loved it! This is a clean, YA suspense novel that I was happy to have my teenage daughter read. We both agreed that the characters were real and the situation was believable. Once you sat down with this book you did not want to get up until you were done. The suspense and action grabbed a hold of you until the very end. Both my daughter and I are excited that the second in the series is coming out." - D. Chapman, Amazon reviews

Goodreads / Amazon

 

Book 2: Protected

 

Synopsis from Goodreads: She has the guy. The terrorists have been taken care of. She has a shot at becoming popular. Life is great! Until they find her. Now she must run and leave behind everything she knows, including herself.

Praise for Protected: "From bullies to terrorist, Christy faces challenge after challenge in this stunning sequel that raises the stakes, both for her saftey, and her love-life. A fantastic addition to a series that is sure to catch the hearts of readers." - Heather McCorkle, author of the Channeler series

"Protected is a thrilling follow-up that left me sitting on the edge of my seat and begging for more." - Magan Vernon, author of How to Date an Alien

"A suspenseful, romantic, and intriguing novel. Protected is a riveting novel that I couldn't put down until the very last word." - Miriam Barton, author

"This anticipated sequel sizzles with equal parts thriller, suspense, and romance. A spine tingling story I could not put down." - C.K. Bryant, author of Bound

"Protected has equal parts romance and thriller. This fast paced novel has a little something for everyone!" - Lani Woodland, author of Intrinsical.

Goodreads / Amazon

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If you want to check out more about the series or the author, head on over to Cindy M. Hogan's blog or check out yesterday's blog tour stop!!

Cover Reveal: Grasping at Eternity by Karen Amanda Hooper

Today, one of my writer friends with The Indelibles, Karen Amanda Hooper, revealed the AMAZING cover of her next book, Grasping at Eternity (Kindrily Series #1).

You may all know Karen from her awesome YA book Tangled Tides, but this is a completely different series and sounds incredible. Check it out:

Synopsis from Goodreads:  X-MEN meets MY NAME IS MEMORY in Karen Amanda Hooper’s latest young adult release. Coming in May of 2012!!

Leave it to Maryah Woodsen to break the one rule that will screw up eternity: Never erase your memories.

Before entering this life, Maryah did the unthinkable—she erased. Now, at seventeen years old, she’s clueless that her new adoptive family has known her for centuries, that they are perpetually reincarnated souls, and that they have supernatural abilities. Oh, and she's supposed to love (not despise) Nathan, the green-eyed daredevil who saved her life.

Nathan is convinced his family’s plan to spark Maryah's memory is hopeless, but his love for her is undying. After spending (and remembering) so many lifetimes together, being around an empty version of his soulmate is heart shattering. He hates acting like a stalker, but has no choice because the evil outcast who murdered Maryah in their last lifetime is still after her.

While Maryah’s hunter inches closer, she and Nathan make assumptions and hide secrets that rip them further apart. Maryah has to believe in the magic within her, Nathan must have faith in the power of their love, and both need to grasp onto the truth before they lose each other forever—and discover just how lonely eternity can be. 

To add this book to your Goodreads shelves, click here. Go ahead, you know you want to.

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So, what do you think guys? Do you love this cover as much as I do?

Looking into the Dark

Today was my day to post to The Indelibles website. I decided to tackle dark themes in YA literature. Here's a preview:

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Thinking of a blog post is never easy. In fact, until last week I had absolutely no idea what I would write about. You all may not know this about me but I'm intensely shy. I suffer from severe stage fright. It's ridiculous, I know. Still, it's a part of who I am and I worried that whatever I had to say would fail to meet the expectations of this wonderful group that I'm lucky to be a part of.

Fortunately something happened last week (and not the my-laptop-broke something) that provided inspiration.

I've been blogging on my own blog A New Kind of Ordinary for almost a year now. At some point during this time, my blog became a book blog. It was a natural transition given my profound and undying love for the written word. I've posted reviews on my blog regularly along with other content and never really thought my opinion was affecting anyone. I wrote mostly for me because I love to talk books.

However, last week I received not 1 but 4 pieces of hate mail. Now, I've deduced that these emails are related since, well, they all showed up in my inbox on the same day and they all made reference to a positive review of Various Positions that I had posted to Amazon that morning.

I'm a writer. I can take constructive criticism. I've conditioned myself to handle negative reviews. As a reader, I've realized that not everyone will hold the same opinion that I do about any particular book. Yet, these emails were hard to stomach. Mostly because they weren't constructive and they had little to do with my actual review. These ladies had no problem with how my review was written. They made it quite clear that the problem they had was with my promoting and praising a book that they deemed inappropriate for a young adult audience.

To continue reading, head over to my post on

The Indelibles blog!!!

Indelibles on Fire - Introduction + Giveaway

Welcome to the Indelibles Blog Hop!

In celebration of our official launch, we are giving away a KINDLE FIRE! If you'd like to start at the beginning of the INDELIBLES ON FIRE GIVEAWAY BLOG HOP, then please start here:

http://indeliblewriters.blogspot.com/

If you are already mid-hop, then welcome to your next stop! By following the link at the bottom of this post, you can proceed to the next author (and check out the awesome individual giveaways we are doing along the way!). If you are entering to win the KINDLE FIRE, don't forget to take note of the keyword at the end of every blog post -- the words spell out a phrase you will need to enter the contest on the last stop.

Marketing guru Shelli Johannes Wells has teamed up with twenty four other indie and small press authors to bring you the Indelibles.

“We are indie authors who write middle grade and young adult fiction.

We are dedicated to leaving a permanent mark on the world with our stories and words.

We are The Indelibles.”

Each week we'll explore fun, fabulous, and fierce topics for today's teens, drawing on pop culture and themes from the books we write. Check out our official launch Monday, January 9th for fun giveaways at http://indeliblewriters.blogspot.com/ . We'll also having a "blogger" chat on January 11th and a writer/author chat on the 18th to answer questions about self and indie publishing. See our blog for details.

And now without further ado, allow me to introduce myself:

I'm Melanie McCullough. I am an Adult and Young Adult author, living in the beautiful and historic city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a home overflowing with books and shoes. Although I write in many genres, my heart will always belong to YA Contemporary novels like my upcoming debut, BREATHE.

Of course, no matter which genre I'm writing in, at their core, my stories will always be about true love.

In addition to being a writer, I am an avid reader and book blogger. You can see my review policy here or check out my reviews here.

To learn more about me, feel free to stalk me:

Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads

The keyword for this stop on the hop is:  WITH

Continue the hop and visit the next Indelibles author:  http://addisonmoorewrites.blogspot.com/

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Now, to celebrate I am having a giveaway for a copy of Dark Eden by Patrick Carman.

You want it? Just fill out the rafflecopter below. And when you're done, continue along the hop to meet the other Indelibles.