Book Blast: Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher & Giveaway

Never Too Far
by Thomas Christopher
Kindle Edition, 272 pages
Published May 10th 2012 by Kalmaha Press

A harrowing story of love and survival.

In a future of scarce resources, where the possession of gas and diesel is punishable by death, a teenage boy and a pregnant girl must save their impoverished family. They risk their lives on a terrifying journey to sell stolen fuel on the black market.

Mary surprised Joe by knocking his arms away. She was stronger than she looked. Then she swept her legs off the bed and sprang to her feet. She took two steps and turned to face him as if to prove there was nothing wrong with her. But there was definitely something wrong. She wavered a moment. Her already white face turned ghostly. Her eyelids trembled. She seemed to realize she was becoming faint, and what that meant.

“I’m fine,” she said. “You don’t have to go.”

Joe got ready to catch her in case she fell, but somehow she held herself steady.

“It’s okay,” Joe said. “Just sit down. I will go find some food.”

Joe inched toward her. He was afraid to grab her again because she might try to wrench free once more and really fall. When she coughed, her little shoulders jerked and her round stomach jumped. Her head was drooped low and her hair hung down so he couldn’t see her face at all.

“Come on, lay down,” Joe said.

She didn’t move. Joe stepped toward her, but before he could put his arms around her, she tilted forward and rested the crown of her head against his chest. He slid his arms along the sides of her hard belly and around her waist. Then he shifted her toward the bed again. She moved like a bundle of empty sacks in his arms. He set her gently on the bed before he bent down to lift her feet onto the sheets.

After he sat in the chair, Mary asked him, “What if you don’t come back?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Joe said.

“How do you know?”

“I just know. You have to trust me.”

Purchase your copy today!

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Thomas Christopher grew up in Iowa, where he graduated from the University of Northern Iowa. After living in Seattle and Montana, he received his MFA at Western Michigan University. He has published short stories in The Louisville Review, The MacGuffin, Redivider, Small Spiral Notebook, Cooweescoowee, and other places. He was also awarded an Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant and was a finalist for the Matthew Clark Prize in Fiction. Currently, he lives in Wisconsin with his wife Jessica and their son Holton.

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Book Review: Unbeautifully Loved by Emma Grayson (+18)

Author: Emma Grayson
Series:  Breathe Again #1
Publisher:Emma Grayson
Release Date:April 25th 2013
My Rating: 5 Cups
Source:Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review
Blurb (from Goodreads):

In three words I can sum up everything I learned about life. Regardless of the shit going on in your life, this fact still remains.

It. Goes. On

Lexie Todd knew these 3 simple words. They were her mantra. So, after dealing with years of abuse at the hands of her boyfriend and the father of her son, she knows what needs to be done. With help from her best friend Mollie, they go on the run.

After months of being on the run they finally find the perfect town to settle in. Unable to trust and always having her guard up, the last thing Lexie wants is to get involved with Lukas Gunn.

Persistent, annoying, bossy, over protective and extremely hot, Detective Lukas Gunn.

After an incident leaves her vulnerable, Lukas knows there’s something haunting her. He’s determined to find out, wanting to protect her and make her his. But Lexie is determined also. Not wanting to give up her past, she pushes him away. Repeatedly.

But when history repeats itself, will Lexie finally be able to trust those around her to keep her safe? Will Lukas be able to save her? Or will Lexie succumb to only knowing what it’s like to be Unbeautifully Loved?

******************************
**Warning**
This book contains the following and is recommended for ages 18 and up.


-Sexual content.
-Abusive subject matter
-Attempted rape
-Language

Have you ever read a book that took you so much by surprise it left you a little breathless? That’s how I felt right after finishing Unbeautifully Loved. Lexie and Lukas’s story was so beautiful, it made me not want to leave it’s pages for a long, long time.

Lexie has had a rough life. At only 26 she went through some pretty horrible things, so horrible I have no idea how she managed to escape them. I liked that even though she is tired and scarred by her past, she has enough strength in her to not let them rule her entire life.

Lukas was an amazing hero. Sexy and funny, he’s also very perceptive and very honest. He saw through all of Lexie’s walls, defenses and fears and managed to get to see the real woman that she should’ve been all along. He protected her when she needed it, even though at times he might have come across as way too stubborn for his own good.

I loved this book. Some parts where a little predictable, but they didn’t pull me away from the story. I would love to see a HEA story for Mollie. I loved her and she deserves it after everything she did for Lexie.

Now I’m waiting for the next book in this series, Unbearable Guilt. *sighs* I have to wait until October *pout*

Happy Reading!!

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn #3

Reading Blogs & Eating Popcorn is a weekly feature here at Ruby's Books, in which I share some of the posts written by other fellow book bloggers over the last week, posts that I loved so much I have to share. 

The first post comes from Kimba @ Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. She gives some tips on writing negative reviews. Since I started book blogging I've only written one negative review. I'm a bit... uncomfortable with the idea of writing more negative reviews. This is mostly due to the fact that, like I said many times in the past, I just tend to stop reading books I don't like even a little bit. But these tips are great, and some of them apply even to positive reviews.

The second post is from Ashley @ Nosegraze and it's about MyFreeCopyright and if it's useful or not. I think that even though it's a free service and it's not tied to any government, it can't hurt. But I do think, like Ashley says, that it doesn't do a lot to actually protect your work. But it's not nothing.

The third and last post is from Nancy @ Tumbling Books. She wrote a very cut and funny post on what happens when book bloggers get lazy. This totally sounds like me. *blushes* On a serious note though, college is why some mental health problems develop *sigh*

That's all for now! Do you have some great blog posts that you read this week that you loved and think everyone should read them? Share them in the comments below :)

Ch-ch-ch-changeees!

Hello everyone! Oh, how I've missed blogging! I know, bad blogger *blush* I won't go into details, but let's just say my life's so hectic, I don't even have time to sleep like a normal person. Which is why I'm going to make a few changes around here.

One of the most important change is that I am no longer accepting review requests. From anyone. I thought about it long and hard and I realized a few things.

• One, I don't have time. I hate writing a post or a review just for the sake of getting it up here. I want to give you the best post I can write and with the time limitations that I have now, I can't. And I'd hate to accept a review request and make a bad job at reviewing it. :-(
• Two, because I don't have enough time on my hands, I don't have time to read as much as I did. In June last year I was at my 60 books mark, this year I barely reach 30. I miss reading for days and not care about the "wasted" time, but for now it's not possible. 
• Three, I want to stop experimenting with the genres I read for a little while. I am not complaining, don't get me wrong, but I want to read in my favorite genres for now. I will go back to experimenting, because I love finding new books and reading about things I've never read before, but not for now.

This doesn't mean I'll stop blogging, it doesn't mean I won't be requesting books for review from the authors I love and stalk a little too often, it just means I don't accept review requests. 

Other changes aren't as important as this one. There might be a short period of time in which my posts will be fewer, because I don't want to do memes every day and write 1 review a week, I feel that's not me being a book blogger. I will schedule reviews and posts ahead of time (not like I did the last time I said that, I swear. You'll see!), it's just that for at least a month I won't have posts every single day of the week.

I hope you had an amazing summer so far. Mine has been mostly cold, rainy and stressful. I'm waiting for hot summer days when I can do nothing but sit in a comfy chair and read *fingers crossed* 

Blog Tour Book Review & Guest Post: Identity Break by Stifyn Emrys

Author: Stifyn Emrys

Series: Identity Break #1
Publisher: Createspace
Release Date: February 1st 2013
My Rating: 4 cups
Source: review copy offered by author in exchange for an honest review
Blurb (from Goodreads):

How far would you go to find yourself?

Imagine everything you thought you knew about yourself turned out to be a lie, and you didn’t know who was telling the truth. Imagine you possessed a secret so dangerous that, if it were exposed, it would reshape the entire world. What would you do if that secret were your very identity?

In almost every way, Palo Vista seems like a typical California city, with office buildings, schools, and homes sprawled out across suburbia, filled with families making a life for themselves at the dawn of the new millennium.

But two seniors at Mt. MacMurray High are about to find out that nothing is as it seems. Jason Nix is a star athlete and honors student who can’t seem to remember anything about his childhood. Elyse Van Auten is a budding artist from a broken home whose father left her mother two years ago - or so she’s been led to believe.

Like most teens entering adulthood, Elyse and Jason just want to find out who they really are. For them, however, the stakes go far beyond their own personal quest. Join them on a journey of self-discovery that becomes a desperate fight for survival against enemies determined to conceal the truth … and find out what happens when that fight becomes personal.

The first installment of a new science fiction/adventure series for young adult, adult and new adult readers. Full of action, twists and surprises.

Breathtaking, fast, on edge. That's what comes to my mind right now when I think about this book. I think it really is amazing when a book can be like that. 

I loved the idea of this book, not knowing what the truth really is, always wondering if something is real or not. That idea is both thrilling and terrifying, but it's such a great combination within Identity Break. Then there's the fact that I could never really grasp what was going to happen next. From the first page of the book, I couldn't quite manage to say "ok, this is what will go on next" and be right. I loved that, constantly being surprised.

The book has many POV. Even though at times it was a little confusing, I thought it was a great way to show the full story, not just a side of it. It felt really good. But, like I said earlier, don't think that it can help you anticipate things. At least it didn't help me. One other thing that I loved about the multiple POV. Even though, like I said, I was a little confused, the thing that I noticed is that the POVs don't "bleed" into each other. You know how sometimes you think "wait, I was in X's head, now I'm back to C's POV or is this B's POV??". It didn't happen with Identity Break. I had a very clear image of when I was in each character's head. That was very, very good.

The characters are also very good, they sort of jump out the page, they're so vivid and at times they almost seem real. I really couldn't put this book down. And I cannot wait for the next installment in this series.

GUEST POST:

I just started publishing books last year, so people may ask, “What the heck does he know about it? He’s a noob!”
I admit, it did take me three decades to get around to publishing my first novel, Identity Break . But I’ve spent my entire career writing and editing for newspapers, blogs and so forth.
Still, you might feel more comfortable taking advice from someone who’s been involved in fiction his entire life, so I’ll turn this over to Jason Nix, the protagonist of Identity Break. Here are his ten commandments of successful writing, in his own words:
1) Use active sentences. I’m on the football team, so I like action.
2) Write punchy. Get to the point, please. An action-adventure novel should have lots of action and adventure. Don’t make sentences so long I lose my way. I get lost in Identity Break a couple of times as it is, and believe me, it’s no fun.
3) Don't bore me with elaborate description. I just want enough info to make me feel at home. I can figure out the rest on my own. I’m not stupid, and if I wanted to look at pictures, I’d be watching TV. My girlfriend (well, I wish she were my girlfriend), Elyse, is an artist and knows how to draw pictures in her head. As for me, I don’t need a description of every flower petal or bird’s wing. Why would I? I have a photographic memory!
4) Keep the action coming. Like most good protagonists, I like a challenge. If you keep me sitting on my butt all day, I get restless. I am still a teenager, after all.
5) Make your characters (heroes and villains alike) charming. My nemesis, Pamela Throckmartin, is too charming for her own good. I could actually do without her charm, but I’m sure it’s fun to read about it. Just be glad you don’t have to deal with her personally.
6) Create characters your readers will relate to. Like me. I’m a star athlete with a genius-level I.Q. But underneath it all, I’m just like everyone else. Honest. (Wink, wink.)
7) Shun multisyllabic pomposity. Like that sentence. Just because you have a great vocabulary doesn’t mean you should flaunt it all the time. And yeah, I meant to say “flaunt,” not “flout.” I know the difference.
8) Have fun. But not at the expense of your favorite characters. Please! We have feelings, too (or at least we’re written that way).
9) Surprise the reader. Repeatedly. Make your readers say, "I should have seen that coming." Believe me, I didn’t see the twists in Identity Break coming. From my perspective, it would have been a lot easier if I had.
10) Don't write a dissertation, business proposal, résumé, abstract or legal brief. Write something you'd want to read! I’m graduating from high school soon enough. I don’t want to deal with that garbage until it’s absolutely necessary.

Stifyn Emrys is a journalist and educator who has written on subjects as diverse as history, religion, politics and language. He has served as an editor for fiction and non-fiction projects, and his first book, “The Gospel of the Phoenix,” was published in the summer of 2012. He has published four other books, including three non-fiction works and the children's fairy tale “Feathercap.” “Identity Break” is his first novel. He lives on California’s Central Coast with his wife (also an author), stepson, cat and dog.

 Connect with Stifyn!
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/semrys
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Stifyn-Emrys/e/B008LHKFM2/
Twitter: @stifynemrys.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/stifyn-emrys/58/b73/36b
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/6453846.Stifyn_Emrys
Blog: http://semrys.blogspot.com/
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/stifyn-emrys?dref=2207

Book vs Movie: Beautiful Creatures

About a month ago I decided to take a "trip" to my favorite bookstore. I didn't plan on buying anything, I just needed to ogle...oops... I mean look at some new books and pick them up and pet them and then put them back on the shelf and go home. Did that sound just as bad in real life as it did just now in my head? Yeah, I usually look like an idiot that can't decide on a book to buy whenever I go there. Anyway, that is so not the point. *smacks self*

Back to my story. I was just looking at some random books and for some reason Beautiful Creatures stood out. It is possible that the huge sign with "- 15%" helped with that, but I'm not sure LOL. All I know is that I saw Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson on the cover (HUGE, huge fan of them both) and I said to myself that I need to see the movie. Of course, I then decided to buy the book and read it before watching the movie (it was difficult, because I so, so love Jeremy Irons and I needed to see the movie). But I made it *pats self on the back* I loved the book so much that I had really high expectations about the movie.

While I was watching the movie I was left a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, if I could watch that movie again, I would, just to see that scene with Irons and Thompson (I swooned and I almost yelled "YEAH!" at the end. I didn't though :D) But the movie didn't have some pretty important scenes and some characters as well aren't in the movie.

Remember when I said I was a fan of Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson? I am, I truly am. But at times I didn't think that the face managed the character in the book, you know what I mean? For example: Macon is such a dark, mysterious character. Refined, yet he can be a smart-ass. Smart, normal, yet I have no doubt that he has a lunatic side. Does this remind you of anyone? No? Alan Rickman anyone? I kind of thought Jeremy Irons was more fit to play Ethan's Dad. Don't get me wrong, Irons can be all of the above and more, but he seems too... gentle for this role. *hides from fans*

I was kind of expecting more from this movie. What happened with the pendant? And the visions? And Ethan's mom's BFF? And so many other little things, details that I wanted to see in the movie. I havn't yet read the other three books, but I have a feeling that these "little things" will be a lot more important than they seem.

OH! And another thing. And please don't throw something at me. On my copy of the book, right on the back cover, with proud letters, it says something about fans of Twilight and True Blood. Really? REALLY??? Twilight is vampires, True Blood is a TV show, nothing to do with Beautiful Creatures. Yes, I know True Blood is based on the Southern Vampires Mysteries series. But you can't really compare a TV show with a book. To me, at least, that's apples and oranges with a hint of bananas.

VERDICT: Book 1 - Movie 0

The book wins IMO.