Tag Archives: young adult

Happy Book Release Christopher Harlan and Away From Here – A Young Adult Novel

Christopher Harlan has a new book out called Away From Here.  It’s a Young Adult Literary Fiction novel.  I’ve got my copy and I’m diving into Christopher’s words today! 

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Message From Christopher Harlan:

“So, who is this book for?

Anyone who’s ever had a best friend that brought light to the darkness of their lives and helped them find their way when they were lost. It’s for anyone who can remember the intensity of the first time they fell in love—how they would do anything for that person, and how easy it was to lose yourself in that process. This book is for anyone who struggled in school, and finds discomfort in the uncertainty that the future can sometimes bring. It’s for anyone who’s dealt with mental illness—in any form, and in any way—throughout their lives, and for those who have a complicated relationship with their parents. For anyone who’s ever been made to feel different when the world around you tells you to be like everyone else—this is for you. And finally, this book is for the people who understand how the power of love and empathy can help us overcome any obstacle, even if we’re a little messed up on the other side of it. Go pick this one up – what can you lose?”

Away From Here Blurb:

“When I was seventeen years old there were only three things that I knew for certain: I was a mixed up mixed kid, with weird hair and an unhealthy love of comics; I wanted to forget I’d ever heard the words depression and anxiety; and I was hopelessly in love with a girl named Annalise who was, in every way that you can be, a goddess. What can I say about Anna? She wasn’t the prom queen or the perfect girl from the movies, she was my weird, funny, messed up goddess. The girl of my dreams. The reason I’m writing these words.

I’d loved Anna from a distance my junior year, afraid to actually talk to her, but then one day during lunch my best friend threw a french fry at my face and changed everything. The rest, as they say, is history. Our History. Our Story. Annalise helped make me the man I am today, and loving her saved my teenaged soul from drowning in the depths of a terrible Bleh, the worst kind of sadness that there is, a concept Anna taught me about a long time ago, when we were younger than young. So flip the book over, open up the cover and let me tell you Our Story, which is like Annalise, herself – complicated, beautiful, funny, and guaranteed to teach you something by the time you’re through. Maybe it’ll teach you the complexity of the word potato, something I never understood until the very last page.”

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Find Christopher Harlan Here:   WebsiteGoodreadsAmazonTwitterFacebook.

You can download a FREE, 7,000 word prequel titled “Our Story—an Away From Here Prequel” (which includes 2 free chapters from the full-length book) here—>

http://a.co/34swxXx

Reviews: Hear full testimonials and reviews (over 80) on Goodreads 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212508-away-from-here

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

 

Release Blitz for Justin’s Season by SM Sawyer

Release Blitz for Justin’s Season by SM Sawyer at NineStar Press.

justin's season
S. M. Sawyer takes you on an amazing journey in his debut novel Justin’s Season. Be prepared to witness a miracle and journey of discovery, hope, and love.

I would recommend this book to readers 15 years and older.

Click here to see my Five Star blog review: http://wp.me/p69RB3-ke

As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~ janisf

 

Making Faces by Amy Harmon is releasing today in stores everywhere!

Today is a big day for Amy Harmon and I’m so excited for her.

Today her book Making Faces (one of my all-time favorite books) is releasing in stores everywhere!!! If you haven’t read this book, then go out and get it. Making Faces is the kind of book with all the feels and everyone should read!

You can check out my review of Making Faces here: http://wp.me/p69RB3-4w or see all my Amy Harmon book reviews here: https://bookreviewsjanisf.com/?s=amy+harmon

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As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~ janisf

Strange Truths by SD Wasley an Alice England Mystery

Strange Truths is a Young Adult Novel containing social and family issues with a little bit of mystery thrown in.  This is the first book in the Alice England Mysteries.

strange-truths

My FIVE Star Review:

Alice England is a very unique character and I loved her immediately.  She’s a young woman in her senior year of school who lives with her father in a funeral parlor.  She sees things that others don’t and she always speaks the truth.  Kids in her school find her odd and basically stay away from her.  Mikey Warrender thinks she’s a bit odd as well but then Alice takes him on an adventure that changes their lives.  This is a kind of detective story with lots of twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages.

I very much look forward to more of Alice’s adventures.

More About Strange Truths:

Why did she have to be so goddamn weird?

Mikey Warrender’s goals are within his grasp. On track for a spectacular swimming career in the last months of his senior year at school, his life seems ideal. A successful Senator father, a pretty, popular sister, and a girlfriend who acts and looks, well, perfect. They’ve had their share of trouble in the form of Mikey’s late twin, but that trouble died with Toby and now things can finally get back on track.

Until Alice England. Mikey couldn’t have been less interested in a friendless undertaker’s daughter who sees strange things and always speaks the truth—until she starts stalking him at school. Alice has reason to believe Tobias Warrender was reluctant to take that fatal dose of crystal meth. What’s more, she insists Mikey is grieving for his twin. Curious, Mikey lets Alice in—just for a moment—and before he knows what’s happening she’s wedged her foot in the door and busted his world wide open.

Alice leads him through a series of discoveries that make him look more closely at his own carefully constructed reality. Innocent yet knowing; kind yet devastatingly honest, Alice effortlessly unravels Mikey Warrender’s falsely safe world—and what really happened to Toby.

Strange Truths is a coming of age detective story that will appeal to adults both young and old(er), especially lovers of classical mystery with a twist.

Find SD Wasley here: FacebookInternet WebsiteGoodreads, Amazon.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.

As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~ janisf

From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon #HappyReleaseDay

From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon is a Historical, Inspirational, Romance you are absolutely going to love.

Releases today, December 1, 2016 and recommended for readers 16 yrs and older.

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My FIVE Star Review:

I really tried to prepare myself.  I knew this was a historical novel about World War II.  I knew reading From Sand and Ash was going to be emotional, it was going to dragged me places I was sure I didn’t want to go, and I knew even before I opened it to page one, that Amy was going to make me take this journey and I was going to be changed by the end. I absolutely was.

Most people in the world know the stories of WWII.  You either learned them in school or maybe you had a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle who lived through it.  What Amy gives you in this book is a story of two young people, Angelo and Eva, who are thrown into this horrific war and work to do whatever they can to help people.  There is laughter along the way and joy, there is family and love, there is sorrow and horror, there is commitment and trust but most of all there is determination to keep going.

Amy Harmon is Magical.  There are no other words to describe her.  She puts a pen to paper and gives us everything from deep down in her soul and I for one am truly grateful.  Each of her novels have filled me with such joy, even with a few tears.  If you don’t normally read historical novels, please do me a favor and give this one a try.  You will not regret it.

I’ll leave you with these:

“Fear is strange.
It settles on chests and seeps through skin, through layers of tissue, muscle, and bone and collects in a soul-sized black hole, sucking the joy out of life, the pleasure, the beauty.
But not the hope.
Somehow, the hope is the only thing resistant to the fear, and it is that hope that makes the next breath possible, the next step, the next tiny act of rebellion, even if that rebellion is simply staying alive.”

“Life is hard.  What an understatement! Hard is too mild a word for the trouble we’ve seen. Life is hell shot with just enough heaven to make the pains of hope all the sharper. Life is impossible. Ugly. Agonizing. Inexplicable. Torture.”

“Our immortality comes through our children and their children. Through our roots and branches. The family is immortality. And Hitler has destroyed not just branches and roots, but entire family trees, forests. All of them, gone.”

More About Sand and Ash:

Italy, 1943—Germany occupies much of the country, placing the Jewish population in grave danger during World War II.

As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion. As the years go by, the two find themselves falling in love. But the church calls to Angelo and, despite his deep feelings for Eva, he chooses the priesthood.

Now, more than a decade later, Angelo is a Catholic priest and Eva is a woman with nowhere to turn. With the Gestapo closing in, Angelo hides Eva within the walls of a convent, where Eva discovers she is just one of many Jews being sheltered by the Catholic Church.

But Eva can’t quietly hide, waiting for deliverance, while Angelo risks everything to keep her safe. With the world at war and so many in need, Angelo and Eva face trial after trial, choice after agonizing choice, until fate and fortune finally collide, leaving them with the most difficult decision of all.

Pick up From Sand and Ash here: Amazon.

Find Amy Harmon here: Internet, FacebookGoodreads, Twitter

To read more of my reviews of Amy’s books, click here: janisf Amy reviews

As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~ janisf

 

Honesty by Seth King

Seth King’s Young Adult Novel, Honesty, releases today.

 

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My Five Star Review:

Seth King has a way of telling a story by giving you words that take up residence in your heart and soul. Once the words are in there, you can’t help but feel changed.

Nicky and Coley are two 19 year old’s trying to navigate the “roads” of their lives. Obstacles, like love, family, friends, school, and the world, get in their way. They try to make their relationship work the best way they can. There are so many ups and downs for them on this roller coaster ride that it just about breaks my heart.

Two people should be allowed to love each other regardless of their gender, race, religion etc and the struggles Nicky and Coley go through are still so typical in this world. I’d like to think the world is getting better all the time but we still have a way to go.

For me personally, I ‘Honestly’ do not care that your first love was a boy. I don’t care if your fifth, sixth or current love is a boy or a girl. We love who we love. Our hearts and our souls pick who they want in their life and they love. I just wish the world would leave people alone and let them LOVE.

This book, Seth King, will change lives, help lives and make people stronger. All of your books change people and help people. Don’t ever stop writing.

I would highly recommend this book. Everyone should read it.

About Honesty:

A radiant story of first love and self-acceptance for fans of John Green, Jandy Nelson, and Rainbow Rowell
“Maybe we weren’t meant to collide. Maybe we were meant to explode.”
As a closeted teenager in the Deep South with a holy-roller father and the scars to prove it, bookworm Cole Furman has resigned himself to experiencing life and love only within the pages of his favorite novels. But after Nick Flores seems to walk off a page and starts to rewrite his story, Cole finds his dreams spinning into a dazzling – and complicated – reality.

If you have ever found yourself on the wild breathless thriller ride that is young love, Honesty will rip you back again in screaming color.

For a special personal note from Seth King click Here.

Get your copy today on Amazon – http://amzn.com/B01CDZBHZ6

Find Seth King on FacebookInstagram

As always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf

The Rift (The Seventh Book 2) by SD Wasley

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Brilliant, Action Packed, Amazing, second book in The Seventh series by SD Wasley that leaves you desperately wanting Book 3.  You absolutely need to read The Seventh before you take on this book.  (Young Adult 14+)

My Five Star Review:

The Rift starts where The Seventh leaves off.  Mimi is finally happy with her life.  She has good loyal friends she thought she would never have, she has a boyfriend and she’s enjoying her new school.  All is going so well; the kids are developing their gifts but then one of the extraordinary seven is no longer with them.  All of their gifts go a little crazy and nobody can figure out why.  In order to solve the problem, the kids develop a plan that makes you scream into your book, NO!!!   Then the ride starts, the action begins, secrets are discovered and your left breathless and wanting more by the end of the book.

If you enjoy a really well written young adult book filled with a paranormal science fiction feeling, then pick up both The Seventh and The Rift today.

 

About The Rift

“She finally got things together. Mimi’s dating a hot guy and has a place in the school’s Gifted Program with her awesome friends. Yes, she still attracts the dead. But there’s only one ghost these days, and he doesn’t seem to have an awful lot to say.
Just when Mimi’s life is looking pretty good for the first time in years, the unthinkable happens … one of the seven gifted teens is torn from their close-knit group. The unity of their circle shattered, things begin to go terribly wrong. It’s ruining their focus—and with the threat of the Astarion cult growing stronger each day, the gifted seven need all the focus they can muster.
In The Seventh, Mimi found her place in a circle of seven extraordinary teenagers. In The Rift, she must face what happens when the circle of seven is broken.”

Reading Order:

seventh series

The Seventh – Book 1  Amazon

The Rift – Book 2  Amazon

The Deluge – Book 3 Coming 2016

 

Find SD Wasley here:  FacebookWebsiteGoodreads 

As Always, Keep Writing/Keep Reading ~janisf