Saturday, September 27, 2014

Cover Reveal of The Oath by Apryl Baker






The Oath
Book 2 of The Coven Series
By Apryl Baker
Release Date:  10/07/2014

Summary from Goodreads:

She killed herself.

Everyone asked why, but when I got my hands on my sister's diary, I understood exactly why.

I stared at the girl in the mirror as I removed my nose ring. Gone was the black hair, replaced by golden blonde locks that made my sapphire blue eyes shine and my California sun-kissed skin glow. The Goth chic clothes had been put away and I wore a pink tank top and a pair of khaki colored Capri’s. Stylish sandals completed the outfit. I wanted to barf.

The snotty little would-be witches would pay for what they'd done. By the end of the week, they’d all be praying to whatever god they worshiped to hide them from the hell coming for them.

May the Fates have mercy upon them, because they would pay the same price they’d demanded of her.

Their lives.

Add to your Goodreads to be read list now!

Available for pre-order now!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Apple | Kobo

Read book 1of The Coven Series, The Promise!



Summary from Goodreads:Armed with kick-ass shoes, can CJ stop a maniacal coven leader, save the town, and still get Mr. Melt In Your Mouth Gorgeous while surviving the darkness coming for her?

The smoke from the fire burned her eyes, its heat caressed her skin and the taste of fear choked her. She was going to burn just as her ancestor did all those centuries ago in New Salem Village. How could she have been so wrong about everything?

Cassie Jayne Bishop grew up the only non-believer in town of Coven. When a stranger comes to the sleepy town of New Salem, everything she thought was true unraveled around her. Ethan made her question everything, even her sister’s death. Clues start to pile up and Cassie is determined to find out if the Coven was the real reason her sister died.

What she uncovers terrifies her to the very depths of her soul....

Buy Links:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Apple | Kobo | B&N



About the AuthorSo who am I? Well, I'm the crazy girl with an imagination that never shuts up. I LOVE scary movies. My friends laugh at me when I scare myself watching them and tell me to stop watching them, but who doesn't love to get scared? I grew up in a small town nestled in the southern mountains of West Virginia where I spent days roaming around in the woods, climbing trees, and causing general mayhem. Nights I would stay up reading Nancy Drew by flashlight under the covers until my parents yelled at me to go to sleep.

Growing up in a small town, I learned a lot of values and morals, I also learned parents have spies everywhere and there's always someone to tell your mama on you. So when you get grounded, what is there left to do? Read! My Aunt Jo gave me my first real romance novel. It was a romance titled "Lord Margrave's Deception." I remember it fondly. But I also learned I had a deep and abiding love of mysteries and anything paranormal. As I grew up, I started to write just that and would entertain my friends with stories featuring them as main characters.

Now, I live Huntersville, NC where I entertain my family and watch the cats get teased by the birds and laugh myself silly when they swoop down and then dive back up just out of reach. The cats start yelling something fierce...lol.

I love books, I love writing books, and I love entertaining people with my silly stories.

You can reach me at any of these places:

Facebook | Twitter | Wattpad | LinkedIn | Google+

PS: DO NOT GET IN MY WAY IF THERE IS A SALE ON AT TARGET - my home away from home!


Friday, September 26, 2014

Fun Friday with YA Storytellers


Welcome to Fun Friday by The Society of YA Storytellers.  This week the members share tidbits from some of their novels. Happy reading!


Looking for Lucy Jo (The Morgan Sisters #3) by Suzy Turner






Bait
(Order of the Spirit Realm #1) by Kasi Blake


Book of the Lost (Midnight Guardian #5) by Bryna Butler


Who We Were by Christy Sloat


Learning to Swim (Hearts Out of Water #1) by Annie Cosby

Friday, September 19, 2014

Chapter One from Who We Were

Summer
One
The school parking lot was a complete mess. I pulled in hoping it would be organized like my school’s lot was. We each knew where to park our cars: the geeks got the far lot, the preps had the center, and the popular kids, or status monsters, got the upper lot closest to the school. Since the sixth grade, I had called them status monsters as it referred to their needy desire to get noticed in school. They would do anything to become popular, even turning themselves into status hungry demons, therefore the name stuck.
There was no designated space for my kind because well, I didn’t have a category. I wasn’t a geek. I was definitely not preppy. I sure as hell was not a status monster either. I was one of a kind. My spot was usually where the last possible space was. Usually late to class, my best friend, Lily, and I would hit the doughnut shop for our usual coffee and sour cream doughnut. When we rolled up to school after scarfing our breakfast and rocking out to the newest song by our favorite band of the month, we’d find a parking spot wherever it was available. We’d walk as slow as we could to our first period class and just barely make it before the tardy bell rang. To put it simply, we were not excited about getting to class, ever!
But this school was totally different. I sat in my Honda with the air conditioning on full blast watching the mad chaos ensue in front of me. Most of the kids were waiting for other people to park their cars while they were stuck behind them. The cars blocking the entrance were there because the drivers were merely chatting it up with friends, planning out their summer on the first exciting day of summer school. I sighed heavily when I noticed my chance. Far off in the distance a lone spot was open. I jammed the gear shift into drive and took off swerving around students and cars until I smoothly slid into the tight spot.
I killed the engine and grabbed my new bag. I refused to go to summer classes with my junior year backpack. No way! I had purchased all new items for the next four weeks. This was a new school and a new chance to actually become someone different. A clean slate. No one here knew me, so my past history was erased. I would be Sadie Peters, popular and outgoing, instead of Sadie Peters, a shy nobody that no one pays any attention to.
I looked up at Alcott High’s newly rebuilt entrance. It was the town’s oldest school, but it held the most history. It was the very first school built in Laurel Lakes when it was a small town. Now that the town has grown immensely, they needed a new school built, and that’s how Ridgeline High, my school, was built. While I liked my school for various reasons, I loved the history of Alcott. To me it held hope and immense change. After a complete and utterly disastrous junior year, I could only see promise staring me in the face.
I would be taking courses that were required for senior year now, so that when next year started, I would only have a half-day session. Then, after school I would be taking creative writing courses at the local college, preparing me for a university and hopefully an internship at a publishing firm. I had it all planned out. This was just the first step in my well thought out plan. A plan devised with Lily many years ago. We hated this town and wanted to get out as soon as our diplomas were in our hot little hands. I frowned at the thought of Lily at home sleeping in while I was here. She was spending her summer serving ice cream at Scoop’s while I was here. Scoop’s was the best place to meet guys in the hot weather, and she had been looking forward to this summer job all year. While I was jealous she was going to be surrounded by town hotties all day, I knew I had to do this. Besides we planned to meet up at the lake after school.
It will be fine. You’ll meet new people and have a fresh start. I told myself. Take that first step.
I took it with my eyes forward and head held high. But I failed to miss the hot guy walking straight into me. His books flew out of his hand, and I fell on my ass. Everyone in the quad looked directly at me and laughed. Not the start I had hoped for, at all. I looked up from the gravel into the eyes of the hottest guy I’d ever seen in Laurel Lakes.
“Are you all right?” hot guy asked me. I stared in astonishment. His blue eyes dug into mine like he was searching through my soul.
“Uh, yeah. I’m good, you?” I mumbled.
“I’m actually doing great. I’ve never seen you before,” he said as he pulled me from the ground. “I would remember a face like that.”
I smiled from ear to ear as I brushed myself off. Maybe it was too soon to say I failed my fresh beginning.
“I’m Sadie,” I told him even though he didn’t ask my name. He threw me off by noticing my face. “I go to Ridgeline.” He smiled and rolled his eyes upward. “That’s where they’re hiding you, huh? I hate Ridgeline, but I won’t hold it against you,” he admitted. “I’m Nash Rylan. Nice to meet you, Sadie. What are you doing here? Did you fail Economics?”
I laughed. You’d have to be an idiot to fail Economics.
“No, I’m taking English Lit now, so I don’t have to take it next year,” I confessed. His wide smile actually faltered slightly, but not slight enough that I didn’t notice. “I want to have half a day next year that way I can get extra credits.”
I looked down instantly feeling shy at telling him all of my plans. Then I wondered why he was here in summer. Did he fail a class?
“I totally get it,” he said as he rubbed his neck with his hand. “I wish I was that ahead of the game. I actually failed Economics.”
Oh my God! I just called him an idiot. Thank god I didn’t say it out loud. That was another thing I was working on with myself, thinking before I speak.
“Too bad we won’t have a class together,” I blurted. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking before saying that. Still I had to work on it obviously.
“I was gonna say the same thing,” he said with a smile.
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. I’d love to get to know you more, Sadie.”
I was not prepared for this. I wasn’t prepared for any guy interaction, let alone guys this hot. The most I had was my guy friends. I never dated, so I had zero experience when it came to guys. I just stood there dumbfounded.
“Can I get your number?” he asked finally.
“Sure!” I said eagerly. He pulled out his cell and handed it to me. I added my name and number to his contacts list. I even added a small heart next to my name. That way he’d remember me.
I handed him back his phone and realized my hands were shaking. He took it and bent down to pick up his pencil that fell, no doubt, when I ran into him.
“Can’t forget this!” he joked. “I can’t fail now, I have my trusty pencil, and I got the prettiest girl’s number. It’s gonna be a good day for me.”
The bell rang out loudly. I wouldn’t be late at this school. Another rule for myself: no more slacking when it came to class.
“I should go,” I said walking away. I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay with him and keep talking. Keep staring at his beautiful face.
“Okay. See ya!” He waved at me and then turned to join his friends. They all greeted him, and at that moment he turned to look at me again, showing me his bright smile. I waved at him and smiled back. I hardly ever smiled like that, not unless it was something extremely funny or I felt really happy.

Nash made me smile because he’d given me just what I was looking for when I signed up for summer school. He gave me optimism. I would be whoever I wanted to be without anyone or anything to hold me back.


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Monday, September 15, 2014

Who We Were Virtual Shelves

Who We Were

“Who we were had washed away with the summer. Who we are was yet to be seen.”
Summer school at Alcott High was only supposed to gain Sadie Peters extra credit, nothing more. Her goal wasn't to make friends, or gain the attention of the most popular football player, yet she managed both. Her life was cruising along on course ... until that summer.
Could a simple stint in a different school change her identity completely and introduce her to love for the first time? How would that affect her relationship with Lily, her best friend?
Hopefully their friendship was strong enough to make it through the tumultuous summer. Sadie learns that great things come with change, but sometimes memories of the past are hardest to part with. 




Purchase your Kindle Copy

Kindle




Read and exclusive excerpt right here;
 Talking with him wasn’t comfortable, and I blamed Lily for that. She ruined my night, therefore ruining my chances with Nash. He leaned in and rested his chin on the top of my head. It actually wasn’t weird. Then he kissed it.
“Wanna walk down to the water for a minute? It’s too loud here,” he whispered in my ear.
I actually would like nothing more, so I nodded and he took my hand. We walked past groups of people, and I felt their eyes on us. I didn’t look at them, I just watched Nash pull me behind him. Finally we reached a lake that I had no clue existed here behind the house. He let go of my hand and jumped onto the dock then helped me up. A white boat sat next to it, and it bobbed side to side.
“Whose house is this?” I asked dumbfounded.
Nash laughed. “It’s Oliver’s house.”
Of course it was. Only Oliver would have a house like this. And I remembered Nash telling me about Oliver’s family’s boat. So this was what it was like to be rich. You threw huge parties and made out with girls on your own dining room table. I shook the thought away and fought to focus on Nash. He sat down on the worn dock, and I sat carefully next to him.
“I’m really glad you came, Sadie.”
He looked at me intently, his eyes boring into my soul. He looked at me like this at the ice cream shop. It was either his signature move or he was really into me.
I bit my lip and said, “I’m glad I came too. Parties aren’t usually my favorite thing to do.”
He cocked his head. “I thought you went to Ridgeline parties.”
I did say that didn’t I? “Oh yeah, I mean I do. But it’s not my favorite thing to do on a Friday night.”
“So what would you rather do?” He seemed to get closer to me, but I didn’t see him move. He ran his fingers through his spiky hair. It had a mind of its own, his hair. It was naturally spiked without gel while his brother’s hair was unruly and slightly curly. I wanted to touch Nash’s hair and perhaps run my own fingers through it.
I tried to focus on his question, but his pure beauty was making that really hard.
“I like to watch movies. I read a lot too,” I said lamely. He probably thought reading was archaic and movies were boring. If I had to guess, I’d say Nash’s life was a constant party. That and football.
“I try to avoid books if I can,” he laughed. I was right. “But I love going to the movies. My favorite movie is Thor.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Of course his favorite movie was about a bad-ass wielding a hammer.
“What’s so funny? Are you laughing at Thor?” He joked.
“Yes, actually I am.”
He leaned into me and tickled my stomach. I flew back and laughed. He knew exactly where to tickle me too. “Thor is a barbarian,” I said when he stopped. That seemed to get him going, and he lifted me up and carried me to the grass. He straddled me and pinned my helpless arms under his knees. Damn he was strong!
“Now, say Thor is a god, and I will not tickle you,” he ordered.
I shook my head. “Nope. I won’t say it.”
“I warned you, Sadie.” He went straight for the soft spot of my belly and tickled me until I thought I was going to cry. When he stopped and looked up, I turned my head to see what distracted our tickle fest. It was Kyleigh speed walking toward us. Nash let my hands free and leaned back into the grass. I rolled over and sat up.
“Sadie,” she said when she reached us. She was out of breath and held out a finger asking for a minute. “Your little friend, Leslie, she said to come get you. She’s sick.”
“Lily?”
“Yeah, she did a whole shit load of shots and a keg stand. She fell on the ground, and now she’s puking. She can’t even stand up.”



Sunday, September 7, 2014

Meet my new main female character, Sadie

Sadie Peters is my newest MC from my upcoming book, Who We Were. When writing Sadie I decided to make her a little like myself when I was in high school. Insecure at seventeen, awkward around guys and desperate for a place to fit in.
Writing Sadie was very enjoyable for me. She really wants to fit in but finds it hard to break the rules to do so. She has morals and she stands by them. 




Read the an excerpt of  Who We Were right here:

I killed the engine and grabbed my new bag. I refused to go to summer classes with my junior year backpack. No way! I had purchased all new items for the next four weeks. This was a new school and a new chance to actually become someone different. A clean slate. No one here knew me, so my past history was erased. I would be Sadie Peters, popular and outgoing, instead of Sadie Peters, a shy nobody that no one pays any attention to.
I looked up at Alcott High’s newly rebuilt entrance. It was the town’s oldest school, but it held the most history. It was the very first school built in Laurel Lakes when it was a small town. Now that the town has grown immensely, they needed a new school built, and that’s how Ridgeline High, my school, was built. While I liked my school for various reasons, I loved the history of Alcott. To me it held hope and immense change. After a complete and utterly disastrous junior year, I could only see promise staring me in the face.
I would be taking courses that were required for senior year now, so that when next year started, I would only have a half-day session. Then, after school I would be taking creative writing courses at the local college, preparing me for a university and hopefully an internship at a publishing firm. I had it all planned out. This was just the first step in my well thought out plan. A plan devised with Lily many years ago. We hated this town and wanted to get out as soon as our diplomas were in our hot little hands. I frowned at the thought of Lily at home sleeping in while I was here. She was spending her summer serving ice cream at Scoop’s while I was here. Scoop’s was the best place to meet guys in the hot weather, and she had been looking forward to this summer job all year. While I was jealous she was going to be surrounded by town hotties all day, I knew I had to do this. Besides we planned to meet up at the lake after school.
It will be fine. You’ll meet new people and have a fresh start. I told myself. Take that first step.
I took it with my eyes forward and head held high. But I failed to miss the hot guy walking straight into me. His books flew out of his hand, and I fell on my ass. Everyone in the quad looked directly at me and laughed. Not the start I had hoped for, at all. I looked up from the gravel into the eyes of the hottest guy I’d ever seen in Laurel Lakes. 

“Are you all right?” hot guy asked me. I stared in astonishment. His blue eyes dug into mine like he was searching through my soul.
“Uh, yeah. I’m good, you?” I mumbled.
“I’m actually doing great. I’ve never seen you before,” he said as he pulled me from the ground. “I would remember a face like that.”
I smiled from ear to ear as I brushed myself off. Maybe it was too soon to say I failed my fresh beginning.
“I’m Sadie,” I told him even though he didn’t ask my name. He threw me off by noticing my face. “I go to Ridgeline.” He smiled and rolled his eyes upward. “That’s where they’re hiding you, huh? I hate Ridgeline, but I won’t hold it against you,” he admitted. “I’m Nash Rylan. Nice to meet you, Sadie. What are you doing here? Did you fail Economics?”
I laughed. You’d have to be an idiot to fail Economics.
“No, I’m taking English Lit now, so I don’t have to take it next year,” I confessed. His wide smile actually faltered slightly, but not slight enough that I didn’t notice. “I want to have half a day next year that way I can get extra credits.”
I looked down instantly feeling shy at telling him all of my plans. Then I wondered why he was here in summer. Did he fail a class?
“I totally get it,” he said as he rubbed his neck with his hand. “I wish I was that ahead of the game. I actually failed Economics.”

Want more? Get Who We Were from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Kobo on September 15, 2014







Sadie Peters