Thanks to Kayleigh Clark of Berkley/NAL, I am giving away one print copy of At The Corner Of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor.
Description of At The Corner Of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor:
The author of The Union Street Bakery presents a new novel about a woman searching for a fresh start—while unable to forget the past… Adele “Addie” Morgan grew up in a house filled with pain and loss. Determined to live life on her own terms, Addie moves to the country and finds a job at a vineyard where she discovers stability, happiness, and—best of all—love with the kind owner, Scott. But an unexpected call abruptly pulls Addie out of her new and improved life. Her sister has just given birth and Addie’s Aunt Grace wants her to return home to help the family—even if it means confronting things she’s tried so hard to forget.
When Addie arrives, she quickly realizes that she hasn’t truly let go of her former life, at least not completely. After making a surprising connection with her sister’s baby—and her sister’s ex-husband, Zeb—Addie must choose between her picture-perfect future with Scott and the family roots she thought she’d left behind for good…
About Mary Ellen Taylor:
Mary Ellen Taylor grew up in a southern family that embraced stories of all kinds, from a well-told anecdote to a good yarn or a tall tale. It may have been inevitable that Taylor would take her storytelling heritage to new heights, moving beyond the oral tradition to become a published author.
Taylor, who finds cooking and baking to be important creative outlets, explores some of the challenges and comforts of those pursuits in THE UNION STREET BAKERY. The novel is influenced by her life in another way as well. Both her grandmother and her daughter were adopted, and so is her protagonist, Daisy McCrae. Taylor has been active in bringing attention to issues regarding adoption, including the concerns faced by adoptees in adulthood. Recently, she and her daughter, born in Russia, spoke out on Richmond’s WTTB-TV regarding that country’s efforts to curb adoptions by foreigners.
Taylor was born and has spent most of her life in Richmond, but also lived in Alexandria for four years. She received her degree in English from Virginia’s Hollins University, and worked in marketing and sales before she became convinced she could write and sell one of the many stories swirling in her head. Today, nineteen of her romance and suspense novels and four novellas written as Mary Burton have been published, earning praise from readers and reviewers as well as spots on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. THE UNION STREET BAKERY was her first novel as Mary Ellen Taylor.
When not writing or appearing at conferences and book signings, Taylor continues her culinary pursuits. She’s been a kitchen assistant for more than fifty culinary classes over the past seven years at Sur la Table and at the University of Richmond’s Culinary Arts program, where she is currently completing her Baking and Pastry Arts Certificate. In addition to spending time with her family and her two miniature dachshunds, Buddy and Bella, Mary Ellen enjoys yoga and hiking.
Enter the Giveaway To Win At The Corner Of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor:
This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on June 1, 2015. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.
Today it is my immense pleasure to kick of the ‘At The Sharp End of Lightening’ by NR Bates tour!
At The Sharp End of Lightning by NR Bates:
Publisher: NR Bates (January 30, 2015) Category: Epic Fantasy, Magic Realism, Literary Fiction, Celtic Mythology, History Tour Date: May/June, 2015 Available in: Print & ebook, 239 Pages
AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING is the tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds.
The intertwined worlds of Oceanlight and Earth are no longer hidden from view of each other. In one realm, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her family and she encounters a deadly blue haze at sea. Escaping the poison makes her realize that her world, Oceanlight, is experiencing sudden and catastrophic environmental change.
Meanwhile, in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth with haemophilia, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit who intentionally shoves him off a cliff. If Yalara and Einion don’t uncover the connections between their worlds and near-deaths, it will have dire consequences for the worlds they live in. Book one of the OCEANLIGHT series.
Praise for ‘At The Sharp End of Lightning’ by NR Bates:
“What a fantastic book, the author takes you into another realm. I couldn’t put the book down, a real page turner. Seeing as this is book 1 I can’t wait for the next one to be written.”-Scotialassie, Amazon.UK Reviewer
“British author NR Bates makes his novel writing debut with AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING, Book 1 of the OCEANLIGHT series. He has indeed written extensively which explains why his command of the medium is so secure: he has published more than one hundred and twenty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification as a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. Bates’ passion for the ocean and environmental sciences has proven a successful driving force in both his scientific mind and his fantasy creative mind. The result, as we read it here, is `true’ Science Fiction fantasy!
Bates opens his book with a map/diagram called The Interfaces – the meaning of which will be explained throughout the novel, but whose information offers hints and suggestions of codes to be solved. And at the end of his book he discusses Welsh history that informed this story as well as the biology and biogeochemistry of the Sargasso Sea, further influences. The author provides an outline of the story that assists the reader immensely: `The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds.
Bates’ writing style can only be called `elegant’ – he is unafraid to challenge the reader with a rich vocabulary that somehow enhances the characters we encounter. This is obvious form the opening paragraph:
`As the streamer of lightning harmlessly discharged through her body into the palm of her hand, Yalara Narika noticed many things at once. There was fright and surprise as adrenaline raced through her body. The words “I’m alive” came to mind, accompanied by an overwhelming relief when the forked sharpness passed out of her. Then came the reflex response– her call to Calymene, Mother Earth– that she had despite her doubt. A hurried glance brought the reassuring thought “I’m still in the sky.” Simultaneously, she returned to her search– for the “lost”– which was set against the immensity of the seas. And interwoven amongst these reactions were thoughts of that moment in the distant future, at the end of her life, when she’d fly up into the tumult, clad in a cuprous woven fabric, and upon the flash of electrica, her constituent parts would disassemble in an instantaneous coruscation of energy.’
This is our first encounter with being struck by lightning.
As with most fantasy/sci-fi books it takes a while to adjust to the strange names and the references to places of origin, but Bates’ language makes that journey of discovery a rewarding one. He does offer a helpful Sprite Glossary and Human Glossary at books end. This is a strong debut, well worth the investment of mental energy.”- Grady Harp, Amazon Hall of Fame & top 100 reviewer.
Ambitious and enchanting, At The Sharp End Of Lightning by author N R Bates proves a rich and original foray into the realms of fantasy fiction. Compelled by a commanding narrative that readily enthrals the imagination, the magical intrigue simmers throughout as Bates renders his fantasy world in rich hues. A world parallel to our own yet retaining a time worn familiarity that makes it feel immediately authentic. It’s an intricate, intrigue-laden telling, which plays to the best in this popular genre and it’s clear from the start that Bates is in his element.
“There’s certainly much to enjoy here. From cleverly contrived and vibrant scenes to a captivating blend of magical mysticism, he ably manages to avoid prescriptive tropes whilst a certain descriptive economy and a tight word count brings a penetrating levity to his dialogue. Both timely and well observed, he notably avoids the trite mutterings of mediocre characterisation to create genuine depth and emotive resonance, which in turn ensures the reader becomes fully invested in the trials and tribulations of his characters.
Beautifully written and undoubtedly the start of an exciting new series, At The Sharp End Of Lightning proves a fine example of fantasy fiction. Definitely deserving of a place on your bookshelf, it is recommended without reservation!”-Book Viral
About NR Bates:
Print
NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife,seven cats, one dog and the tropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and twenty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification.
He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences.
Thanks to John Pitts of Penguin/Randomhouse, I am giving away 5 print copies of ‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara.
Book Description:
Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light.
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.
Praise for ‘A Little Life’:
“Spring’s must-read novel… If [Yanagihara’s] assured 2013 debut, ‘The People in the Trees’, a dark allegory of Western hubris, put her on the literary map, her massive new novel…signals the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.”-Megan O’Grady, Vogue
“The phrase ‘tour de force’ could have been invented for this audacious novel.”-Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships—and the book’s effect is cumulative. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget.”-Publishers Weekly
About Hanya Yanagihara:
Hanya Yanagihara is the author of The People in the Trees. She lives in New York City.
This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on March 24, 2015. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.
Thanks to Kayleigh Clark of Berkley/NAL, I am giving away one print copy of At The Corner Of King Street by Mary Ellen Taylor.
