The Betrayed by Deborah Andreasen

The nice thing about having my own blog is that I can post about my own books. :)

The publication of The Betrayed is a little over two weeks away. That's coming right up! And here is the official cover of The Betrayed:

 Am I in love with this cover? Absolutely! I'm thrilled with the way it turned out. My poor designer sent me like six versions and I kept saying, "I like it, but..." Ultimately, I didn't love any of the drafts she sent me. The night before we were supposed to wrap it up, she texted and said she had one more draft and she thought I was really going to like it.

I was so nervous! What if I didn't? We were pushing up against a deadline and I needed that cover! But, one look and I went, "That's it. That's the one." What a relief!

Here's the back cover with the synopsis:

 

Is that amazing, or what? Sounds like a great book to me. I can't wait until it's released. 

It's now on Goodreads! Go, add it to your shelves and make me feel awesome. ;)

Starting this Friday, I'll post one quote a day from the book on my website: http://www.deborahandreasen.com

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Review: Witch and Wizard by James Patterson

From Goodreads:

The world is changing: the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now, kids are disappearing. For 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside down when they are torn from their parents one night and slammed into a secret prison for no reason they can comprehend. The New Order, as it is known, is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Being a Normal Teenager. But while trapped in this totalitarian nightmare, Wisty and Whit discover they have incredible powers they'd never dreamed of. Can this newly minted witch and wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents--and maybe the world?

***

I wanted to like this book, and to tell the truth, I almost did.  I read the sequel, "The Gift", and I attempted to read the one after that, "The Fire".  This book graces a list on Goodreads called "Books You Hate but Read Anyway."  That pretty much sums this series up for me.  By the time I got to the third book, I was just disappointed that I had sat on the library waiting list for 4 months.  It was really not worth the wait.  

The first book was okay.  The story was just getting started and so it was mildly entertaining and interesting.  I quickly got tired of the predictable action scenes where Whit and Wisty get caught in the cross-hairs of The One and manage to narrowly escape.  The main characters, bother and sister wizard and witch, don't seem to have much of an agenda.  They just run around as catastrophic things happen, all the while shouting sarcastic remarks at everyone.  


Teenagers have been given a stereotype of being edgy, cranky, and sarcastic.  This series took that stereotype to the extreme.  While most teenagers do harbor these characteristics, they tend to surface on occasion, not every minute of every day.  I got very tired of the continuously poor attempt of an author trying to connect with a much younger audience.

But by all means, if you have nothing else to do with your time, give this series a try.  You might love it.

On a side note, I absolutely love the covers for the entire series.  They make the books look much better than they are.

Reading Level: Ages 10 and up
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Amazon
Goodreads
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Review: Gone with a Handsomer Man by Michael Lee West

Teeny finally has it together. She’s getting married soon to a handsome, well-to-do man. Nothing could go wrong. Except when she finds her fiancé playing badminton with two women. And they’re all forgot to get dressed. How could it get any worse? Well, her ex-fiancé is found dead a few days later. And she’s the prime suspect. But what do they have besides speculation? Try the fact that she was found at the scene of the murder.

What Teeny needs now is an amazing lawyer and a kitchen. Baking is her therapy and she needs it. At least, she’ll need it if she wants to survive what’s next. Her first love, Cooper, turns out to be the lawyer she needs, and they soon realize that the old flame never died.

With many questions swirling around her head, the most important is: Will Teeny survive or will the murderer finish the job and get Teeny?

--

This is a murder/mystery/comedy/romance/cookbook. Seriously. Complete with (amazing!) recipes in the back. There are a slew of colorful characters that, yes, might be hard to believe, but I think they just add to the spice of the book.

At times it seemed a little slow paced, but it wasn’t so bad I couldn’t just punch through it. I wasn’t totally satisfied with the semi-cliché ending, and I figured out the mystery early on (which I never do!). Overall, I thought the book was well written.

There is heavy language and sexual content.

• Reading Level: Adult
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (April 12, 2011)
• Source: Goodreads FirstReads giveaway
• Amazon
• Goodreads

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Review: Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner

Being a Russian immigrant is not easy on ten-year-old Vaclav, but he has David Copperfield to help him through. Lena is shy and awkward with her broken English and her dark past. This does not stop Vaclav and his lovely assistant, Lena, from practicing magic every day after school.

The day before their big show at Coney Island, Lena disappears. Vaclav’s mother knows what happened to her, but she’s keeping her secrets to protect Vaclav, as she's always done.

Years later, when Lena returns, Vaclav is faced with reality and uncertainty. He thought he knew what love was, and he thought he knew Lena.

Lena wants to fill in the gaps of her childhood memories, but doing so brings a pain she doesn't think she'll survive. 

Vaclav is forced to see reality and decide if life is what he can make of it. Lena must face the monsters of her past. And Vaclav's mother discovers she cannot always protect her child.

**

I'll admit, I was skeptical. A book about a kid who immigrated from Russia and loves magic? Can you really write an entire book about that? But the story is not as it seems.

What a fascinating book. It took me a few pages to get used to the writing. Since all the main characters think and speak in halting English, everything is written as such. At first I was confused how someone with such lacking English skills could get published. Once I realized what was going on, I understood how brilliant it was.

To tackle such heart-wrenching topics with such candor and love was probably very difficult. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I really felt like I had immigrated along with Vaclav and his family.

There is some sexual content (nothing graphic) and a few instances of heavy language.

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: The Dial Press (May 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• Source: Goodreads FirstReads giveaway

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Review by Fire and Ice

Thanks so much to Heather at Fire and Ice for reading and reviewing The Gifted! (You can also see her review on Goodreads)

Hop over there and check out her thoughts on my book. Show her some blog love and follow (if you don't already). And while you're there, enter the giveaway to win a copy of The Gifted!

If you already have your copy in hand, GREAT! I thank you sincerely. In that case, just leave Heather a comment and thank her for being so nice to me. :) Pin It

My first reviews!

Ok, folks. The Gifted has been out in the wild for a little over a week now. A few of you have gotten your hands on its goodness, and already the reviews are starting to trickle in.

Allie Burke reviewed The Gifted on her blog, and you can read that here. I've also had a few reviews on Goodreads, and you can see those here. One reader is going to post a review on Amazon, so that will probably be up later today.

Thank you everyone for reading the book, enjoying it (so far), and taking the time to review it. As an author, I can't tell you how much I appreciate readers taking the time to share their thoughts and feelings on a book. It makes all the effort worth it when someone says they stayed up late, just to finish the book! And for the record, I've had 3 people say that so far. :)

Yeah, I'm on cloud nine at this point.

I have been interviewed for a few blogs, and I'll give you more details as they become available. For now, plan on catching me at From The Shadows on April 21st. Pin It

Rock bottom rating - It's not my fault!

This may come as a surprise to you (insert sarcasm here), but as an author, I sometimes have this horrible feeling that all my hard work has been for nothing. In the dark hours of night when I have nothing to do but listen to the sound of my own breathing, a sickly fog starts to creep into my mind and whisper things like:

Your book stinks.
No one is going to like it.
You shouldn't have bothered.

It's terrible! I feel like Gollum in Return of the King in which he tells himself nobody likes him and he doesn't have any friends.

Well, Friday, I felt like the cosmos were working together to prove me right. I went on Goodreads to check out how many readers had entered my giveaway. My jaw almost literally hit the floor when I saw my book rating: 1.8 stars.

WHAT?!

I only have 4 and 5 star reviews!

I checked, and checked, and checked again. Yep, I still only had 4 and 5 star reviews. I thought maybe it was just a technical glitch, so I walked away from the computer. Two hours later I came back.

1.18!!!

I wanted to cry. I shrieked and called my husband over. He was confused and a little heated up about it. "You need to email them," he told me forcefully.

"No, no, no. It'll be fine tomorrow," I said with the end of my sentence curling up into a question.

Well...Saturday it wasn't better. It fluctuated varying degrees of awfulness. It was as low as 1.18 and as high as 1.4.

And 1.4 is where it stands today.

I emailed them last night, totally horrified that I had to ask them, "Could you please make me look like I don't suck?" But really, it's not a good thing to have it look like your book is less than 2 stars. It hasn't been released yet. At least give people a chance to read it before they decide to throw me down the stairs!

Goodreads responded and said they're moving the code that calculates ratings from one place to another and have had a few things go awry.

Yeah, like my book rating!

They said I just needed to be patient.

In the meantime, I biting my nails hoping no one really looks at the one little red star. I can just hear it now, "Wow, this must be really bad."

It's not! I promise it's not that bad! It's actually pretty good, if I do say so myself.

So spread the word - as in, just keep in mind - The Gifted doesn't deserve 1 star. That's a technical glitch. AKA, the universe playing a hideous, horrible joke on me. Pin It

Giveaway on Goodreads

On Thursday, March 10th, 5 copies of The Gifted will be up for grabs. Goodreads is hosting a giveaway that runs from March 10th to April 1st.

You will need to be a Goodreads member to enter this giveaway.

Once you are signed up, you can click on the button below to enter the giveaway. You'll just need to enter a mailing address. Sorry, only one entry per household. Tyler and I have tried to enter the same giveaway before and we couldn't because our addresses are the same. Goodreads will send an email to the winners on April 1st.

Good luck!!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Gifted

by Deborah Andreasen

Giveaway ends April 01, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

If you still have questions, leave a comment or send me a message and I'll walk you through it. Pin It

Review: The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

Young Eleonora Cohen, a Jewess born in 1877, is a girl of many talents. She can read and write in 7 languages, she learned to read and memorized entire books by the age of eight. Eleonora is a quiet, reserved girl who loves to read and is constantly thinking.

When her doting father, Yakob, plans a business trip to Stamboul, Eleonora does not plan to stay behind in the care of her resentful aunt and stepmother, Ruxandra. She stows away in one of Yakob's trunks. It is there, on the shores of Bosporus, Eleonora meets her father's business partner and friend, Moncef Bey, and realizes a new life awaits her.

This new life includes tragedy, an American Tutor who could be a spy, and meetings with the Sultan Abdulhamid II.

Let me first start by saying I don't love historical fiction. I don't know why, I just usually don't necessarily enjoy it.

I had heard that the beginning of The Oracle of Stamboul was a little slow, and I found this to be the case. Luckily I pushed through and found the jewel within.

The writing is simply fantastic! The descriptions were natural and flowing. I felt like, for a time, I was tucked into this world or warm sunshine where everything smelled like lilacs with a hint of orange. I was a little hesitant to enjoy a book where the main character is 8-years-old, but as you will find, she is no ordinary girl. And truly, this is no ordinary book.

The jury is still out on whether or not I appreciated the ending, but I suppose it's the only way Eleonora would have wanted her story to end.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through the Goodreads Firstreads program.

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Come find me

Today is a momentous occasion.

This morning I put The Gifted on Goodreads. You can find the page here.

You will see the release date and...ready? The cover! Yes. The cover art is available to the public for viewing. I am confident you will love it as much as I do. So much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears went into it. I didn't design it, but I've been working closely with my sister-in-law, who did design it. Even I don't know how much work went into it, but I can guess how many hours. It's been Kadie's part time job for the 10 days or so. And she has done a fantastic job. Seriously marvelous.  I could not be happier. I told Kadie to be ready, her cover art is about to be famous! (That's me being optimistic.) If you totally love the cover art, leave me a comment so Kadie will know she did a fantastic job.

So head over and check out the page for the Gifted. If you are a Goodreads member, please do me a favor and add it to your "to-read" shelf. The reason I put it on Goodreads was so that I can start circulating The Gifted and spark some interest. When we get closer to the release date, I will have giveaways on there. I will post reminders and links, so fear not.

I have my application in to Goodreads right now to merge my profile to an author account. It'll probably take a few days, they said. But then I'll be an author on Goodreads. I'm not sure I can handle the pressure, but I'll sure try:)

Update: I am now on Facebook! This is a page just for The Gifted. I'm not personally on there, so if you send me a(n ignored) friend request, please don't take it personally! Pin It