Blog Tour: Under the Spotlight by Angie Stanton - Excerpt and Giveaway

Under the Spotlight 

Jamieson Brothers Novel #3

by Angie Stanton

Publication Date: May 5, 2015

Published by HarperTeen

400 Pages

Synopsis

After an embarrassing stint on a reality-TV music competition years ago, Riley vowed never to sing again. Now she's behind thescenes, working at the prestigious Sound Sync recording studio, and life is looking up. But then Garrett Jamieson, the oldest brother in the famous Jamieson brothers band, crashes into her world.

Garrett has hit rock bottom, and he is desperate to reinvent himself. After calling in a few favors, he ends up working at Sound Sync to learn the ropes of record producing from the industry's best. And he can't believe his luck when he discovers that Riley has been keeping a secret—she is an amazing singer. By producing her album, he's sure to top the record charts again. But Garrett is forced to use every trick in his arsenal to persuade the sassy girl to record.

Riley refuses to sing—or even entertain the thought of it—and sparks fly as Garrett finally meets his match. But in the heat of themoment, one stolen kiss changes everything. Will Riley be the first person to finally rein Garrett in, or will Garrett succeed in getting Riley back under the spotlight?

Add to Goodreads

Purchased Links

Amazon / Barnes and Noble

READ AN EXCERPT

Chapter 1

Garrett’s head pounded, and not from the hangover that would greet him with the sunrise, but from being slammed against the wall. Or maybe it was from the few punches that came later when he crashed to the floor of Ye Ole Boston Brew Pub and knocked his head on the beer-stained tile.

He rubbed his unshaven face, and dried blood flaked into his hand. Great. He needed a shower and an aspirin, but the Boston city jail offered neither. Where the hell was Peter? It had been over an hour.

The sharp edge of the narrow bench he lay on cut into his back, making his already battered body even more sore. He only hoped the other guy felt worse. The jerk had the audacity to call him washed up. For Christ’s sake, he was only twenty-two. He’d accomplished more in the last five years than that asshole would in a lifetime.

Reaching for his phone, he remembered the cops had taken it, along with his wallet and keys. Damn it.

“Garrett Jamieson,” a bored cop with thinning hair announced, unlocking the cell. “You’re free to go.”

“About damn time,” Garrett huffed, rising slowly. He tugged his shirt into place, smoothed back his hair, and followed the officer down a long corridor past several cells with other perps. He couldn’t wait to get away from this hellhole. The officer opened a solid metal security door, and Garrett walked through, relieved to be free.

In the far corner of the waiting room, studying the Most Wanted posters, his brother waited, wearing faded jeans and a gray T-shirt.

“Hey Peter,” he called. “See anyone you know?”

Peter turned with a smirk on his face and his hair still ruffled from bed. “Just checking to make sure your ugly mug isn’t up here.”

Garrett sneered. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“Never is.” Peter sighed. “You realize this is becoming an annoying habit. You’re lucky your Jag is still in the shop from your crash last week, otherwise you might have added drunk driving to your record.”

“Stop acting like an old woman.”

“You have more to worry about than me. Dad isn’t going to be happy about this.”

“No reason Dad needs to hear about it.”

“You’re kidding yourself if you think you can keep this under wraps. A couple of photographers are outside. You’re busted. Again.”

Garrett stepped to the counter and signed his discharge papers.

“At least I know how to live a little. You’re tied down to a ball and chain.”

His brother grinned with a smile that melted millions of young girls’ hearts. “Well, I happen to have the hottest ball and chain on the planet.”

Garrett rolled his eyes as he collected his personal effects. Peter was so in love it made Garrett ill. It’s not like he wasn’t glad for his brother, but Peter and Libby were so damned happy all the time, he wanted to puke.

“Yeah, and you’re missing out on the best years of your life,” Garrett snapped.

“How’s that? I’ve been watching you drink yourself into oblivion, rack up speeding tickets, and pick a fight every chance you get. You don’t look too happy to me.”

“You ever think that maybe you’re to blame?”

“How do you figure that?” Peter asked, opening the door to exit the police station and ducking his head as cameras flashed.

“Seriously?” Garrett stopped suddenly. “You’re the one who broke up the band.”

TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY

Enter to Win a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card

ENTER VIA RAFFLECOPTER HERE

Angie Stanton Bio:

Angie Stanton never planned on writing books—she wanted to be a Rockette. However, growing up in rural America with her brothers’ 4-H pigs as pets, she found that dance didn’t quite work out. Instead, she became an avid daydreamer. After years of perfecting stories in her head, she began to write them down, and the rest is history. When not writing, she loves watching natural disaster movies, going to Broadway musicals, and dipping French fries in chocolate shakes.

Find Angie Online

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Author Goodreads

Instagram

SHADE Series Read-along - June 1 - 30

It's the SHADE SERIES READ-ALONG!!!

I've wanted to reread this series for quite a while and now is just as good a time as any.

Team Kilt put together one heck of a Shade series read-along marathon a few years back and we’re put all their hard work to good use again.

During the month of June, a bunch of us are going to read (or re-read) Shade, Shift, Shine, Bridge, and Shattered together. This isn’t a formal event by any means, just a bunch of fans that miss the Shade world. Hope you’ll join us!

 Shade, Shift, Shine

 

Bridge, Shattered

Created by Judy G.

Here’s a suggested reading schedule to keep you on track to complete the entire series during the month of June. You certainly don’t have to follow this, but we’ll share a special post about each section on the days listed on this schedule. Watch the #ShadeReadAlong hashtag on Twitter to see these special posts and to chat with other fans participating in the read-along.


06/01/15 – Read-Along begins
06/03/15 -- SHADE Ch 1-11
06/05/15 -- SHADE Ch 12-18
06/08/15 -- SHADE Ch 18 - SHIFT Ch 4
06/10/15 -- SHIFT Ch 5-12
06/12/15 -- SHIFT Ch 13-20
06/15/15 -- SHIFT Ch 21 - End
06/17/15 -- SHINE Ch 1-11
06/19/15 -- SHINE Ch 12-20
06/22/15 -- SHINE Ch 21-32
06/24/15 -- SHINE Ch 33- End
06/26/15 -- BRIDGE
06/30/15 – SHATTERED

We hope your reading schedule will allow you to join us for this fabulous event. 

Created by Marissa O. (aka Bionic Elbow)

Celebrating PANDEMIC by Yvonne Ventresca

It's the one year publication anniversary of Yvonne Ventresca's contemporary disaster novel, PANDEMIC! Along, with several other blogs, I'm participating in the celebration! Check out the book below and be sure to enter the amazing giveaway!

Even under the most normal circumstances, high school can be a painful and confusing time. Unfortunately, Lilianna's circumstances are anything but normal. Only a few people know what caused her sudden change from model student to the withdrawn pessimist she has become, but her situation isn't about to get any better. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil's worst fears are realized. With her parents called away on business before the contagious outbreak-her father in Delaware covering the early stages of the disease and her mother in Hong Kong and unable to get a flight back to New Jersey-Lil's town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread illness and fatal disaster. Now, she's more alone than she's been since the "incident" at her school months ago. With friends and neighbors dying all around her, Lil does everything she can just to survive. But as the disease rages on, so does an unexpected tension as Lil is torn between an old ex and a new romantic interest. Just when it all seems too much, the cause of her original trauma shows up at her door. In this thrilling debut from author Yvonne Ventresca, Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.

  Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound

Excerpt from PANDEMIC

This excerpt is from the opening of Pandemic. The main character, Lil, is going through a difficult time even before the bird flu strikes her town. In this first scene, I wanted to hint at some of her troubles during her interaction with Jay.

From pages 1-3 (500 words)

I stood on the smoking corner behind school reveling in my aloneness. Not many smokers had the same schedule, which made the corner the perfect place for solitude. We always stayed a foot off the high school property, near the big oak tree, and since we were allowed to leave during last period study hall, we weren’t technically breaking any rules.

As if rules mattered.

“Hey, got a light?” Jay Martinez asked, interrupting the quiet. In the fall, he’d moved from Arizona to live with his aunt down the block from my house.

I handed him my half-smoked cigarette. Cupping the burning ember, he used it to light his own. He didn’t fit in with the other smokers, but then neither did I. My black clothes, basic ponytail, and minimal makeup placed me in my own category. Maybe Lazy Goth. But the nice thing about smokers was that they didn’t exclude anyone.

“Thanks.” Jay passed my cigarette back to me. “Is New Jersey always this cold in April?”

Being the new guy at school made Jay the flavor of the month with the other sophomore girls. They craved him in a nauseating kind of way. He was dark, tall, and lanky, and tended to

over-communicate. Totally not my type. Now he ruined my aloneness with weather chatter. I shrugged so he’d get the idea that I wasn’t in a talking mood.

“Ethan was hoping to run into you,” he said.

Another shrug. I’d managed to avoid my ex for months. No reason to change the pattern now.

“So . . . do you have Robertson for bio?” he asked.

I nodded. Jay definitely wasn’t taking the hint.

“What are you doing your report on?”

“Emerging diseases,” I said, finally giving up on staying silent.

“Cheerful stuff.”

The school projects I chose did favor the dark this semester. American history report? The decision to drop the bomb. English book talk? A collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. Thematically, Ebola hemorrhagic fever fit right in.

“What are you writing about?” I flicked the accumulated ashes. “Lung cancer?”

He smiled. “The biology of taste. I write restaurant reviews on my blog and that was the closest topic I could think of. Do you like eating at restaurants?”

Leaning slightly forward, he held eye contact a little too long for me. Was he flirting? Nervous, I pulled my sweater tighter around me and crossed my arms. A flirtatious guy was the absolute last thing I needed in my life. No boyfriends, no coy conversations for me. Not anymore.

Jay’s unanswered question stayed suspended in the air along with the smoke ring I blew.

“Dinner? I don’t get out much,” I said, stubbing my cigarette into a sand-filled can another smoker had left behind. “I have to go.”

“See you around.”

Maybe I read too much into the conversation, but his eyes seemed to question: You need to leave so soon?

It was all I could do to keep myself from breaking into a run.

 

About the Author

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest

Yvonne Ventresca is the author of PANDEMIC (Sky Pony Press, 2014), a young adult novel about an emotionally traumatized teenager struggling to survive a deadly bird flu outbreak. School Library Journal called PANDEMIC "an engrossing apocalyptic story” and Kirkus Reviews said “this realistic page-turner will keep most readers enthralled.” Yvonne’s other writing credits include two nonfiction books for teens, AVRIL LAVIGNE (a biography of the singer) and PUBLISHING (about careers in the field).

Giveaway

Winner will receive a signed hard cover of PANDEMIC, a $75 VISA gift card, and a limited edition necklace (mentioned in the story!).

***Any entrants using fake or contest only social profiles to enter will be disqualified.***

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: AIR by Lisa Glass

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

AIR 

by Lisa Glass 

Publication Date June 4, 2015

Published by: Quercus Books

Add to Goodreads

Being in a relationship with one of the hottest and most talented male surfers on the circuit is a dream come true… right?

Iris and Zeke get to travel to the most beautiful beaches in the world, competing in major surf competitions. Life should be perfect, but when Zeke is suspended from a surf tour in Hawaii, it’s clear there is some deep trouble in paradise. And then there’s Zeke’s romantic past: at every turn Iris is confronted by his old flames and his hordes of female fans.

Returning to Newquay, Iris finds that at home things have also changed. Her friends have moved on with their lives, and they sense Iris is keeping something – something bad – from them.

What really happened in Hawaii? Why was Zeke kicked off the circuit? And what secret is tearing Iris and Zeke’s relationship apart

Why I'm Waiting

• I enjoyed getting to know Iris and Zeke in BLUE that I'll jump at the chance to get to read more of their story.
• I'm excited to revisit the surfing world.
• I need to know what's going on with Zeke. He was at the top of his game. What has he done?
• Hopefully Iris's friend Kelly will be in the book. I want more of her story.  
• Sounds like there is a lot of drama with the women in Zeke's past. What will this mean for Iris and Zeke? 

It's Release Day!! ALL PLAYED OUT by Cora Carmack - Excerpt and Giveaway

I'm absolutely thrilled to bring you the Release Week Blitz for Cora Carmack's ALL PLAYED OUT! ALL PLAYED OUT is a New Adult Contemporary Romance and is the 3rd book in the Rusk University Series, published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.

   

Amazon ** Barnes & Noble ** iBooks

  About ALL PLAYED OUT: 

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK. 
Straight A’s? CHECK. 
On track to graduate early? CHECK. 
Social life? …..yeah, about that….  

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca’s beginning to worry that maybe she hasn’t had the full college experience. (Okay... Scratch that. She knows she hasn't had the full college experience). 

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a "to do" list of normal college activities. 

Item #1? Hook up with a jock. 

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he’s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it's impossible to get hurt... again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it. 

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she's never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he's willing to take the chance when it's more than just a game. 

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.   

READ AN EXCERPT

Dallas and Dylan toss the disk back and forth a few times, and I groan when Carson and Silas make no effort to intercept or knock down the pass. I’m pretty sure it’s a distraction, so I stick tight to Brookes, and I notice Ryan edging closer to me, too. He must have the same idea.

Next thing I know, Dallas has sent the disk soaring over our heads, and when I look, Nell is standing alone, completely unguarded in the end zone.

She’s holding her hands out and staring at the disk like it’s a missile instead of a piece of plastic. I take off toward her in case she misses it. I want to grab the disk and get it back into play as soon as I can.

As I sprint, the disk slips right through her grasping fingers and nails her in the chest. She gasps; no doubt the air was knocked out of her. The disk ricochets, and if I dive I might can manage to catch it, but I can’t quite drag my eyes away from her chest. Her tits are practically spilling out of the top of the tiny tank she’s wearing. I’d had a front-row seat earlier with my arm around her. Now she’s clutching at herself in pain, but all I can see are her smooth, delicate arms pressed against the curve of her breasts, pushing them even higher.

I should look away before something very unfortunate occurs in my baggy gym shorts, but now I’m picturing that shy girl loosening up beneath me. It’s too easy to take those wide eyes she gave me when I draped my arm around her and imagine them in the low light of my room, her head on my pillow and her legs spread wide.

She makes a soft whimpering noise, and now the rest of my senses join the fantasy, and I think of how she would feel, taste, sound. I wonder just how low I could get her inhibitions. Enough to say my name? To scream it?

“Damn,” I groan, and try to clear my head. “You all right?”

She looks up at me, still clutching at her chest, and pink spreads over her cheeks. She doesn’t say anything.

“Okay,” I say. “There is honestly no way to ask this without sounding like a pig, so I’m not even gonna try. And really, in these situations, I find you might as well go balls to the wall and throw it all out there. So … at the risk of getting slapped, how are your tits?” I think about offering to check them out for her, but I figure that’s probably taking it a step too far.

Her mouth presses into a firm straight line. “It wasn’t my ...” She trails off.

“Tits,” I finish for her. “You have them. You can say the word.”

“It hit me in the collarbone, not the breasts.”

Breasts. I raise an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes.

I take a step forward and say, “Let me see.”

“Absolutely not.”

I take another step, until my shadow falls over her, and take hold of one wrist. “As you pointed out, you weren’t hit in the breasts. Just let me have a look. With the right strength and good wind, a disk can go as fast as twenty miles per hour. I’ve seen them break fingers and noses.”

“Dude, Torres!” Silas shouts behind me. “What are you waiting for? Grab the disk and let’s go!”

Hesitating, I ask, “You wanna take a break? Catch your breath and let me see it?”

She shakes her head stubbornly. “I don’t want the game to stop because of me.”

I turn around and shout back to Silas, “Nell and I are taking a break. You guys keep playing with eight.”

Taking her elbow, I pull her off the field toward the picnic tables. She protests, but only mildly, and she still has one hand pressed just above her cleavage. And looking down at her, I can see moisture clinging to long lashes at the corner of her eye.

I sit her down so that her back is to the field, and go down on one knee in front of her. She’s so small that it puts us eye level, and I say softly, “Move your hand.”

“It’s fine,” she says. “Just give me a couple seconds, and I’ll be fine.”

You don’t grow up with five sisters without learning that sometimes with women, words are pointless. I reach out and move her hand myself, pulling it away from her chest. The skin just below her collarbone is an angry red, and the disk scraped through a couple layers of skin. Not enough to bleed, but I bet it hurts. “Tell me how it feels. Still a sharp pain? Or more of an ache?”

Her eyebrows slant over her pretty brown eyes. “The pain was sharp and steady for approximately thirty seconds, but now it kind of stings.”

“Like a slap,” I say.

She gives a short laugh, her shoulders bouncing once before she stills in what I’m guessing is pain. “I can’t say I know what that feels like. Though I’m not surprised it’s a sensation you’re familiar with.”

I shrug. “I don’t believe in censoring my thoughts. Some people just aren’t as fond of freedom of speech as I am.”

She shakes her head, and I think she’s trying not to smile.

I reach up my left hand and as lightly as possible run my thumb over the red mark. She sucks in a breath and I ask, “Hurts to the touch?”

“Um.” She swallows and blinks a few times.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

I brush my thumb over her skin again, even lighter this time, wondering if the Frisbee could have hit hard enough to crack something. There’s already a purpling around the center that tells me it’s going to bruise pretty good.

She swallows, and my eyes are drawn to the graceful slope of her neck, up to a small chin and full lips. And it hits me then … why this girl caught my eye from the moment she walked toward our group, why I can’t drag my eyes or my hand away from her now.

She reminds me of Lina.

And the memory of the only girl I’ve ever loved packs a punch so hard that it’s my turn to raise a hand to my chest to soothe an all-too-familiar ache.

And don’t miss the first two books in the Rusk University Series…

ALL LINED UP, Book 1

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks

ALL BROKE DOWN, Book 2

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks

     

For more of what’s next in The Rusk University Series, go here!

 

Add Book 4, ALL CLOSED OFF, to your Goodreads now!

 

  About Cora Carmack: Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.        

Website ** Twitter ** Facebook ** Author Goodreads ** ALL PLAYED OUT Goodreads

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: SWEET by Tammara Webber

SWEET

Contours of the Heart #3

by Tammara Webber

Publication Date: April 27, 2015

Pages: 342

Source: Wordsmith Publicity

Add to Goodreads

Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo |Amazon UK

from Goodreads

He’s the love of her life, but he doesn’t know it.
She’s his one moment of sacrifice in a lifetime of survival.

He was damaged and wild, but resilient.
She’s always been obedient. Now she’s restless.

Home for the summer between college and med school, Pearl Torres Frank knows two things: Boyce Wynn is the embodiment of everything she should run from, and everything she wants to run to. Rebellious and loud. Unconcerned with society’s opinion of him. Passionate. Strong. Dangerous.

And one more trait he hides from everyone but her:

Sweet.

My Thoughts

Sweet by Tammara Webber is an oh-my-goodness, I loved it, couldn't stop reading it, didn't want the book to end read. From the get-go, I loved the chemistry between Boyce and Pearl - they are best friends, protectors, antagonists/instigators, lovers, and soulmates. Their love for each other is evident on page after page. They deserve to be with the loves of their lives and this is their story of figuring it out.

It had been a while since I read Easy and Breakable and wasn't quite sure I remembered Boyce from those books. But as I continued to read, (and with some flashback scenes) all of the pieces started falling into place and then I wanted to kick myself for not remembering Boyce and then I wanted to go back and reread Breakable because I wanted to read Lucas's story again. (It's funny how that happens.)

As easy as it is to claim a book-boyfriend crush on Boyce, I am just as fond of Pearl. She's a girl with some gumption - that's the best way to describe her. She makes decisions based on her needs and wants and goes after what she thinks she deserves. I loved reading the book from her point of view and knowing what she thought about where her life was leading and how she wanted to make her way in the world.

This must be acknowledged - Tammara Webber knows how to write a love scene. Let me tell you! They are exquisite - there was tenderness, and wanting and humor. It's just the kind of intimacy that I enjoy reading. Whew! 

Sweet is a book that I wish I could read it again for the first time. The love that Boyce and Pearl have for each other is what great romances are all about. Even though I can't read it again for the first time, I will reread it again for sure and not just the sweet and sexy parts. 

Disclaimer:  I received this e-ARC from Wordsmith Publicity in exchange for my honest review.  I was not compensated in any way other than the e-ARC provided. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of EASY and BREAKABLE (Contours of the Heart series - NA), as well BETWEEN THE LINES, WHERE YOU ARE, GOOD FOR YOU and HERE WITHOUT YOU (Between the Lines series - YA/NA).

I'm a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life. Before writing full-time, I was an undergraduate academic advisor, economics tutor, planetarium office manager, radiology call center rep, and the palest person to ever work at a tanning salon. I married my high school sweetheart, and I'm Mom to three adult kids and four very immature cats.

Find Tammara Online:

tammarawebber.com

Facebook

Twitter

instagram.com/tammarawebber