Valentine's Day Special~ Hello? by Liza Wiemer

Morning Swooners!

I have an amazing deal to share with you today. Author Liza Wiemer's Hello? is on sale for $0.99. This book has been raved about by several of my blogger friends and i'm so happy I just bought my copy today!! So if you haven't read Hello? yet, here is your chance because starting today through Monday the 15th, the eBook will be on sale! 

Hello? by Liza Wiemer

Publication Date: November 10, 2015

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

One HELLO can change a life. One HELLO can save a life.
Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.
Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.
Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.
Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.
Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.

Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.

Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian).

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

My debut YA novel, HELLO?, was published by Spencer Hill on November 10, 2015. I am also the author of two non-fiction adult books, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. A pre-school to high school educator now writing YA fiction full time, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! And I'm a diehard Green Bay Packers fan.

GIVEAWAY

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BOOK BLAST + EXCERPT: The Offering by Salah el Moncef

Title: The Offering 

Author: Salah el Moncef

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Publisher: Penelope Books 

EXCERPT: 

I was still disoriented and had no sense of space or time when the two uniformed policemen helped me up from the spot where I had wedged myself by the stairs.

I still had no sense of the limits of my mind either. I was suffering from loss of vitality and my body felt hollow and weak, as if from electric shock.


I remember the moment when Collin stood before me in the semi-dark landing: he looked as if he was wearing two round pieces of mirror glass on his eyes—probably the reflections from somebody’s flashlight on his oval rimless glasses.

He must have tried to address me in some way, but I was standing unsteadily between the two policemen and I did not say a word. He did not have time to wait for my words either—his men were already sealing the scene. (For some reason, with the light coming across the doorway now, I was beginning to see them all through a sort of reddish-black aura: they were all jarring and menacing and ominous-seeming, their sounds shrill and penetrating—these shadowy-red men caught in the insanity of their bustle like frenzied backstage actors.)


There was another man with Collin—possibly the police Prefect: the lead investigator, who was a commissaire de police, stepped aside and let him in first with a deferential gesture.

They were followed by Collin’s aides then the experts of the Police Technique et Scientifique—somber men with sinister white gloves and stacks of brown bag envelopes; and their ponderous, incomprehensible equipment—it came in black cases of various sizes that made them look like musicians. There were two white-clad-and-gloved men each holding a stack of dull-white plastic receptacles with thick numbers stenciled in phosphorescent orange.


I stood there and looked on as the two policemen held me. (Was it a routine gesture or did they both decide that I might try to run away?)

And then, during those unreal minutes, something happened that I had always retained in my memory—in my dream-thoughts and in my waking thoughts, well before the work of recall under hypnosis—the only words from that evening that I remember hearing in full clarity: a man with a black-inscribed red armband was talking on a cellular phone—I recall the rectangle glowing a phosphorescent aqua blue in his hand as he tried to put all the din behind him, leaning far out over the rail of the banister, like a careless boy, his hand cupped over his ear.

Apparently, somebody somewhere in the outside world was worrying about the size of the building, and the red-sleeved man was working on allaying their concerns, even as he peered into the dark downward gape of the stairwell, as if he was testing how far out he could lean before he went over.

The officer was almost shouting into his cell phone, hopelessly trying to be authoritative and convincing in the middle of the madness: “We’re working on the lights. The stairs are very roomy, believe me—it is an old building with a very wide roomy staircase. No, no. The landing—no. The landing is huge. We’ll let you know when we’re through.”

He was so close that I could have reached out and touched him—this man whose inscrutable words are the only utterances I have kept safely locked in my memory all along.

All at once, I began to shake and whimper: “It’s all gone,” I remember saying.

The reaction of the two officers was to turn me around and help me sit down on the stairs.

One of them leaned over me and tried to tell me something, but all I could register were the distortions of his face through the translucent rim of the reddish-black aura—that face looked like an empty rubber mask wobbling without support.

His colleague was shouting something on his transceiver as the men of the Brigade ran in and out of the apartment.


As I sat on the stairs, I suddenly began to feel that I literally did not know where to turn, that I was literally about to lose my head: was the building going to be invaded by another onslaught of piercing cacophony? Or maybe it was just my head—my nerves imploding in the cavernous recesses of my mind.

I put my hands over my ears and sat with my face cradled between my knees.

Time kept pounding and grinding inside me—its horrid, inhuman relentlessness.

Author Bio:


Salah el Moncef was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He is the author of Sleepwalking and The Offering. His short fiction, largely focused on the Arab diaspora experience, has been published in numerous British and American magazines and anthologies. He teaches at the University of Nantes, France.

Website / Goodreads / Twitter 

FEATURE: Book Blast + Giveaway: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi and Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Hi Swooners,

Sorry for the looooong delay in getting this giveaway started. It's been a crazy three weeks for me! Here is my first giveaway for two awesome excerpts I received from YALLFest 2013!!

The first excerpt is for:

Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi

Expected release date: February 4, 2014

Links: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Summary from Goodreads:

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she’ll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

The second excerpt is for:

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Expected release date: April 1, 2014

Links: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

 

Summary from Goodreads:

I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be some kind of here.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado-taking you with it-you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I’ve read the books. I’ve seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can’t be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There’s still the yellow brick road, though-but even that’s crumbling.

What happened?

Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. they say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm-and I’m the other girl from Kansas.

I’ve been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I've been trained to fight.

And I have a mission:

Remove the Tin Woodman’s heart.

Steal the scarecrows brain.

Take the Lions courage.

Then and only then-Dorothy must die!

Giveaway:

• 3 excerpts of Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi and Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

• 3 winners will be picked (US ONLY)

• Ends December 14, 2013

• Hosted by Lexi Swoons

Rules:

• To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below

• Must be 18 years of age or older

• Contest is open to US entries ONLY

• Winners will be announced on the blog via Rafflecopter

• Winners will be notified via email

• Check out my giveaway policy for more info

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