Guest blog post by Kimber An, author of Sweet Bytes

(Such a dreamy cover!)

Today as part of the marketing for Kimber An's latest novel, Sweet Bytes, Kimber An has kindly allowed me to put up one of my favourite incidents. I haven't got a copy yet, but I'll post the review up as soon as I've read it. I'll hand you over to Kimber An, enjoy! 

Bianca Loses More Sewing Machines That Way

By Kimber An

Good morning, Nayu and all her buddies!  You may remember me, Kimber An, and a guest post I did for Nayu a while back.  There’s an excerpt in that post and, yes, it did make it into the final draft!

http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-blog-post-by-kimber-the-necessity.html

Like my professional teenager-daughter, Nayu likes Bianca, the identical twin sister of the heroine of my Ophelia Dawson stories.  Bianca is, well, nuts and very high-strung and extremely imaginative.  She goes through a lot in my new book, Sweet Bytes.  She starts the story grief-stricken over the death of her beloved daddy, mostly, but also secretly over failing to even try to protect her sister during the Newblood attack in Sugar Rush.  She’s not a classic Kick-Butt Heroine.  She got terrified and reality hits her hard that her sister, whom she adores, could’ve been kidnapped, raped, and killed while she screamed uncontrollably for her mommy.  Now, she’s gotta work through that and find her own inner strength, because the demons who haunt Ophelia are only getting started.

.

In Sugar Rush, Bianca flies into a raging grief when she’s told of her father’s death and throws her sewing machine out the window.  It’s Nayu’s favorite, so I revisited it for the new book in her honor.  Here it is!  Hope you like it, Nayu.

***SWEET BYTES***Bianca & Ophelia & The Sewing Machine.***

All the old emotions flooded her mind and she stood in the center of her room and grabbed her head in both hands. Everything she’d processed raged through her, anew. And then the memories of those two early days in September crushed her heart and she screamed.

"Adrian loved me!  I loved him!" Ophelia screamed. "All the way back then!  Tristan knew Martin was a Newblood!" She hoisted up her sister’s sewing machine and hurled it out the window, glass shattering and parts banging on the rocks.

Just like Bianca did on the day her father died.

"My daddy might be alive right now!" Ophelia screamed at the wind blowing into her face. "I hate you!  I hate you!" She spun around to grab something else to throw.

Mom and Bianca stood in the doorway, gaping.

"What?" She screamed. "I’m a teenager!  I’m entitled to an occasional hissy-fit!"

Bianca stepped carefully past and peered out the smashed window. "I lose more sewing machines that way."

"Too bad we’re out of snowmen to destroy," said Mom.

"I say she needs more practice on this method first. She just kinda chucked my machine." Bianca wagged a finger at the busted sewing machine on the street. "I really hurled mine, you know what I mean?  I put some spin on it."

"I don’t want to talk!" Ophelia stormed out.

***End of SWEET BYTES Excerpt***

Please comment under the post to enter the drawing to win a free copy of this eBook.  Then, pop over to the Fabulously Young ePubs blog to enter the Grand Prize Drawing for several Alaskan goodies, including this wooden bear keychain.  

http://fabulouslyyoungepubs.blogspot.com/2011/10/friday-news-release-festivities-for.html

What are you reading? #86

What are you reading on Monday? is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Home Girl's Book Blog where you post books completed last week and plans for upcoming books. Jump over to her blog and see who else is participating.


Books I've read this week

 Rae of Hope by W J May
Young Adult, Fantasy
(Rae may start off clueless about her own abilities, but she ends up able to hold her own in a topsy turvy world.  My review....)

10/10

Senior Year Bites by J A Campbell

Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
(Experience what life is like when you have to tell your friends you're a vampire, and deal with creepy goings on.  My review....)
10/10

Brave New Girl by Catherine Johnson

Children's, 10 years +
(Heartwarming read about a girl with a big heart.)
8/10








 
 
 

My Soul to Keep by Rachael Vincent

Young Adult, Paranormal
(Nash is a..a.....not a nice guy. Felt so sorry for Kaylee in this one.)
10/10
 
 
 

Senior Year Bites by J A Campbell (Young Adult, Urban Fantasy)

June 2011, Decadent 

Ebook, 

Review copy

Young Adult, urban fantasy

Themes: high school life (& all the dramas), being a new vampire, having to tell loved ones something which might offend them, coping with being different, taking advantage and finding the best of not so great situations, fair amount of drama and thrills, some teen romance, quite a few laughs

Summary from Decadent

Senior year is supposed to be fun: boys, dances and graduation.

It's significantly harder to enjoy it when you're dead. 

Truth or dare is supposed to be fun too. It's not even close to dangerous, so playing at Steph's house didn't seem like a bad idea. My dare? Spend the rest of the night in the graveyard next to her house. It was only a couple of hours until false dawn, my proscribed return time, so no big deal right? Right. 

I survived the attach, but it took me a few days to figure out what was going on. I mean vampires might stalk pop culture, but they're just myths. Yeah. Not so much. School is a lot more difficult when you're a nocturnal creature of the night. I was managing, but I couldn't keep it from my friends for long. After I managed to accidentally save one of our cheerleaders from her drunk and ill-intentioned boyfriend, Steph decided that we should be cool, like superheroes, and fight crime. 

Only I'm a vampire, not a hero, and we live in a sleepy New England town, so crime's a little harder to come by. At least it is until a serial killer moves into the area. He's got the authorities stumped, but then again, the cops don't have a teenage, blood-sucking, non-hero on their team. 

Nayuleska's thoughts

It's pretty rough for Meghan to become a vampire, but given the situation she copes remarkably well. She fends off questions from friends quite a lot. Her mother is pretty understanding of her privacy, as she doesn't push Meghan too far to talk to her. Meghan becomes a pro at avoiding people. The truth does come out, and it does change how her friends look at her. Steph is awesome for being so excited about Meg's powers (some of them have her a bit nervous). She still loves Meg, and is determined to see the positive side of it all.  Meg's powers mean they can help fight the evil that arrives in their town, an evil which is well aware of who and what Meg is. 

Another fun read which gets 10/10. 

Suggested read

Definitely be sure to check out Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill, with another case of understanding friends when one is made into a vampire. 

Rae of Hope by W J May (Young Adult, Fantasy, 10E/10E)

September 2011, Mitchell Morris Publishing 

Paperback and Ebook

Review copy 

Young Adult, Fantasy 

Themes: boarding school, supernatural abilities, family secrets, being special, having a past that affects the present, betrayal, lots of thrill/school drama, some teen romance, heaps of hilarious moments, a few tissues needed.  

Summary from Mitchell Morris Publishing

How hard do you have to shake a family tree to find the truth of the past? 

Fifteen-year-old Rae Kerrigan has never questioned her family's history. That is until she accepted a scholarship to Guilder Boarding School in England. Guilder is a very unique, gifted school. Rae has no idea what she is getting herself into or that her family's past is going to come back and taunt her. She learns she is part of an unparalleled group of individuals who become marked with a unique tattoo (tatu) on their sixteenth birthday. The tatu enables them to have supernatural powers particular to the shape of their marking. Both her parents were marked though Rae never knew, as they passed away when she was young and never told her. Learning about her family's past, her evil father and her sacrificial mother, Rae needs to decide if there is a ray of hope for her own life. 

Nayuleska's thoughts

Rae is extremely lovable, and her voice makes the book a pleasure to read. She finds it tough being in the dark, but she strikes up friendship with her room mate and there are plenty who are curious about her. I was taken aback at virtually every plot twist, which are high paced and life changing. I loved the concept of the different forms of powers, and reading them in use reminded me of anime and video games. 

Be sure to check out W J May's website, with more information about her and Rae of Hope 

Suggested read

For more boarding school drama with supernatural power being the main focus for the students, try Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. 

The Adventures of the New Cut Gang by Philip Pullman (Children's, 9 years +)

September 2011, David Fickling Books

352 pages, Hardback

Review copy 

Children's, 9 years + 

Themes: historical and hysterical, highly intelligent gang members, compassion and disbelief, thieves, wax museum, detective work, some mild romance, a few tissues needed. 

Summary from Random House Children's Books

Thunderbolt, Benny, Birdie and Sharky Bob are a mixed bunch of vagabonds and urchins who come together to form the New Cut Gang in two comic tales of stolen silver, skulduggery and desperadoes. 

Fake coins are turning up all over Lambeth and the finger of suspicion is pointing at Thunderbolt's dad - could he really be the forger? The crime-busting New Cut Gang come to the rescue! 

And when just two clues - a blob of wax and a Swedish match - are discovered at the scene of a break-in, the children find themselves on the trail of an extremely cunning criminal. 

Nayuleska's reasons for loving Thunderbolt...all members of the gang have engaging and very surprising aspects of their character. Yet Thunderbolt had me tearing up when the sky fell on his head and his father was in trouble. It shocked me to get so attached to a boy, as I usually prefer girl characters (see below) but his unspoken love for his father shone through. 

Is there another character who deserves a mention? Make that characters, as the twins are always together. They do such daring things that could only be true because the twins were involved (if that makes sense.) 

How evil/nasty is the enemy? Well, framing innocent people is really not that friendly, and stealing items which would be hard to sell on is stupid. 

Are there lots of plot twists and surprises? It felt that every page I was either laughing or shaking my head with a bewildered expression thinking 'what?'. 

One of my favourite parts was...when one of the girls tried her hand at hair styling,  because the description of her left no doubt that only stupid people could pull the wool over her eyes. 

This is a funny read, both light and moving, getting 9/10 from me. 

Suggested read

If you like a wide range of people working together, try Candle Man by Glen Dakin

The Dare Game by Jacqueline Wilson (Children's, 9 years +)

March 2011, Corgi Yearling, 

256 pages, Paperback

Review copy 

Children's, 9 years + 

Themes: living with foster family, high expectations, dares, truancy, home alone, playing fire, making friends, moderate peril, some humour. 

Summary from Random House Children's Books

I'M TRACY BEAKER, THE GREAT INVENTOR OF EXTREMELY OUTRAGEOUS DARES - AND I DARE YOU TO READ A MORE BRILLIANT STORY THAN THIS. 

I've bought a big fat notebook for writing down all my mega-manic ultra-scary stories in. But especially for my own story. Of how my foster-mum, Cam, has turned out to be a real meanie. No designer closthers, when I really need them. A pokey flat, and a horrible new school. No wonder I bunk off...Still, it will have to do until my real mum comes and gets me. And until then, no-one is going to be better at the Dare Game than Tracy Beaker! 

Nayuleska's reasons for loving Tracy...she settles on the right decision at the end. I don't like that she thought ancient pots and fragments were the pits - I love pot fragments! (Note: my degree was in Ancient History, so pots are very important to me). 

How evil/nasty is the enemy? Anger is a terrible beast to manage when it gets out of hand. As is peer pressure. 

Are there lots of plot twists and surprises? I was a little shocked at how dangerous the dares got, and couldn't quite believe the way Alexander got hurt. 

One of my favourite parts was...when Tracy was reunited with Cam because they really are well suited for each other. 

This third Tracy Beaker book gets 9/10 from me. 

Learn more about Tracy and Jacqueline on her website. 

Suggested read

Be sure to read where it all started, The Story of Tracy Baker

What are you reading?

This week...nothing in the way of a FULL book has been completed thanks to life and all that, so pardon the emptiness of today's post...BUT...that doesn't stop me from asking...

...what are YOU reading?

The comments are open....feel free to share!