After Math by Denise Grover Swank Blog Tour & Giveaway

Title: After Math (Off the Subject, #1)

Author: Denise Grover Swank

Release date: March 12, 2013

Publisher: Self-Published

Age Group: New Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tour organized by: AToMR Tours

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Scarlett Goodwin’s world is divided into Before and After.

Before she agreed to tutor Tucker price, college junior Scarlett was introvert, struggling with her social anxiety and determined to not end up living in a trailer park like her mother and her younger sister. A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.

After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.

But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn't the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?

My Thoughts

2013 has been the year of New Adult Contemporaries for me this year and I've noticed something. They all seem to follow the same basic formula. A guy and a girl both in college or around college age (new adult). There is quite a bit of drinking, parties, and usually some pretty serious sexy times. Now, I'm not complaining about any of this. Just pointing out what I've noticed.

Then along comes After Math. Yep a guy, a girl, college, parties, and some hot sexy times. However, After Math had something more for me. Both Scarlett and Tucker have emotional baggage. More than a little really. This isn't quite your average my last boyfriend broke my heart and I don't know if I can ever love again kind of baggage. This is real, been in totally shitty situations and they've left me with scars and real issues. I think that is what made me love this book. These characters were real, raw and their emotions made me feel. There were seriously times when I found myself holding my breath. Other times I realized I had a knot in my stomach. I was really caught up in their lives and I honestly did not want this book to end, but sadly it did.

After Math is definitely one of my favorite New Adult books and I'm sure it will find a place on my favorites of 2013 list. If you are a contemporary romance fan and are enjoying the new adult books this year I highly highly recommend After Math. 

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About the Author

Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee's Summit, Missouri. She’s a gypsy who can’t live in one place too long or stay in one genre. She writes contemporary romance, urban fantasies without vampires and werewolves, young adult science fiction, and romantic comedy mysteries set in the south. Denise has six children, three dogs, and an overactive imagination. She can be found dancing in her kitchen with her children, reading, or writing her next book. You will rarely find her cleaning. 

You can find her at:

Her website: www.denisegroversank.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeniseGroverSwank and https://www.facebook.com/deniseswank

And Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DeniseMSwank

To view the rest of the stops on the After Math tour just click on the banner!

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Shucked by Megg Jensen

Shucked by Megg Jensen

Publication date: April 14th 2013

Genre: YA Contemporary

Suburgatory meets Indiana Jones...on a farm

Fifteen-year-old Tabitha has had the kind of life that would impress even the greatest adventurers. She's escaped a croc attack in the Amazon, walked the length of the Great Wall of China, and earned a black belt in taekwondo in Korea. She owes her worldly experience to her mother's career in archaeology, but when her mother takes on a dangerous new assignment, Tabitha is devastated to learn she can't tag along. 

Instead, she's forced to live on a midwestern farm with her grandparents where she'll have to attend a full year of public school. It's Tabitha's greatest nightmare, because despite all her adventures, she has no practical experience with the one thing that frightens her the most - other teenagers.

Her math teacher is her mom's old high school boyfriend, she can't tell the friendly girls from the mean ones, and she develops a major crush on a boy she knows she can't trust. And just when she thinks she'll never get the hang of this normal teenager thing, an attack brings the danger of her previous life right up to her midwestern porch. Who could have ever guessed getting totally shucked would bring her face-to-face with her most exciting adventure yet?

Purchase:

Amazon/Kindle

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iBookstore/iPad

Kobo

AUTHOR BIO

I've been a freelance parenting journalist since 2003 and began writing YA novels in 2009. I co-run DarkSide Publishing, am a member of SCBWI, and I blog about writing while juggling freelancing, volunteering, and family life. I live in the Chicago suburbs with my husband, two kids, and our miniature schnauzer, Ace.

Author Links:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter 

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BookRix Promo Writing Contest

BookRix PROMO

BookRix is THE top book community. We connect authors and readers: 
You can create eBooks, publish your own book, and read eBooks - All for FREE!

BookRix YA Contest “Be The Best (Seller) You Can Be!”

Writing is your talent, your skill, and your greatness! Unfortunately, being an Indie Author comes with a downside: The grueling task of self-marketing. It’s a big, book-filled world out there, and without marketing, readers won’t know about you or your work. It’s kinda hard to be a Best Seller when nobody knows about your book, so let’s get you noticed!

Entering this contest could ease some of the pressures of marketing because BookRix will help you get your book out there to the world. Yes, we're cool like that!

PRIZES:

The top 2 winners in this “Be The Best (Seller)” contest will each receive a MARKETING PACKAGE for special book promotions, when their winning book is self-published via BookRix. This Marketing Package includes being featured on the BookRix website /blog/Twitter & Facebook fan pages/newsletter, external book reviews, possible blog tours and exposure on external sites with a possible feature in an eBook shop. A custom cover and editing service could also be thrown into the mix because, like we said, we are cool like that!

Visit the Contest Page Here:

http://www.bookrix.com/post/group;content- id:group_1030883121,id:919829.html

Suicide Note by Teresa Mummert

Suicide Note

Author: Teresa Mummert

Release Date: March 13, 2013

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Sometimes in life it feels like everything that can go wrong does, but everything happens for a reason. A relationship crumbles so someone else can mend the pieces of your broken heart. A change of plans can lead you to something you didn’t even know you were missing. You help others and discover that it was you who needed to be helped all along. 

Jenn’s life is nothing as she had imagined it would be. She is twenty-something with a failing career and her love life has officially ended with an ultimate act of betrayal. She is ready to throw away her dreams when a chance run-in with a soldier, dealing with his own misfortunes, alters her course and changes her perspective on life.

My Thoughts

This is a hard review for me to write. I liked Suicide Note but I didn't love it. I can't even really explain why I didn't love it. Honestly, I'm afraid that within a few weeks I won't remember much of what happened. I don't mean to sound harsh or even be overly critical of this book, just being honest. 

The worst part is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this book. Really. I just wasn't able to connect with any of the characters emotionally. I have been in love with New Adult novels this year (including a few of Mummert's other novels) and was really excited to read this one. The plot is definitely original especially in the New Adult category. The writing was good and I was interested in what was going on I just never got emotional about anything even during the scenes when I should have. If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know I get emotional pretty easily. I wonder if part of the problem for me was that the characters were a little too perfect? 

I really hope that if this book sounds good to you that you will still give it a try despite my lukewarm feelings. 

A Different Blue by Amy Harmon - Giveaway!!

A Different Blue by Amy Harmon

Book Blurb: Blue Echohawk doesn't know who she is.  She doesn't know her real name or when she was born.  Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn't attend school until she was ten years old.  At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on in life, she is just a senior in high school.   With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing. 

This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody.  It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love.  But falling in love can be hard when you don't know who you are.  Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can't love you back might be impossible.

Author Bio:   Amy Harmon knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, so she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Amy Harmon has been a motivational speaker, a grade school teacher, a junior high teacher, a home school mom, and a member of the Grammy Award winning Saints Unified Voices Choir, directed by Gladys Knight. She released a Christian Blues CD in 2007 called "What I Know" - also available on Amazon and wherever digital music is sold.  She lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband and four kids, and doesn't plan to ever move somewhere, because nowhere is sublime.  She has written Running Barefoot, and the Young Adult books Slow Dance in Purgatory and the sequel, Prom Night in Purgatory.  A Different Blue is her fourth novel.

https://www.facebook.com/authoramyharmon http://www.authoramyharmon.com/ http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5829056.Amy_Harmon 

Buy Links

Amazon

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GIVEAWAY

2 - signed copy of A Different Blue plus a blue bracelet with charms from the book and some signed swag

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