Release Blitz: Upside Down by Lia Riley

Title: Upside Down
Author: Lia Riley
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Series: Off the Map #1
Publication: August 5th, 2014 by Grand Central

If You Never Get Lost, You’ll Never Be Found

Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past-and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she'll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.

Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He's never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart.

Purchase

Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

About Lia

Lia Riley writes offbeat New Adult Romance. After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, she scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. She counts shooting vodka with a Ukranian mechanic in Antarctica, sipping yerba mate with gauchos in Chile and swilling XXXX with stationhands in Outback Australia among her accomplishments. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live in Northern California.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

Excerpt

“That’s it, Talia,” Bran’s voice is encouraging. “You’re holding tight, that’s great. Now, I’m going to need you to release your left hand and reach up a few inches to grab the next hold.”

I grit my teeth. The way he talks, you’d think I’m scaling Everest. Or at least Kilimanjaro. Instead—

“’Scuse, us, we’ll be by in a tic. That’s the way, Andy, right around the lady.”

I’m the lady. Andy is a kid who doesn’t look a day over seven who scrambles past me in a flurry of Spider-Man shoes and gap-toothed smiles. His parents bring up the rear, smiling up at their wild monkey child with obvious pride.

And they aren’t the first group to pass me.

Five Swedish women, a couple, and a guy who looked to be in his mid-seventies have also shot past me during the course of the last quarter hour.

The top is so close I can taste it. Bran is being nothing but encouraging, but below me is a twenty-foot drop. Not enough to kill me, unless I fall with some sort of suicidal intent, but enough to make me feel incredibly uneasy about the boulder field.

Bran eases toward me. “Talia, take my hand.”

“Can’t let go.”

“Talia.”

“No.” This is it; this is the reason. Bran isn’t going to admit it here, while I’m bordering on a panic attack on a trail being conquered by elementary school children and senior citizens, but there’s no doubt this is A REASON to lose interest in me. I’m giving him a big capital-lettered reason, but I can’t stop. I physically can’t let go.

“Talia. Take a deep breath.”

“Breath taken.”

“Another.”

“Okay.”

“Give me your hand, no bullshit. I want your fingers in mine. You’ll be safe. I’m going to keep you safe. I need you to trust me.”

Somehow I do it. I give him my fingers. He assists me up. We’re doing this together. My head clears the boulder and I can see the steel marker that identifies the summit ahead. Holy shit, he’s right. I’m going to reach the top.

A few more steps, easy now, and we’re there. The kid in the Spider-Man shoes munches a Vegemite sandwich. I want to scoop him up in a smooshy squeeze. Except his parents would likely object, so I switch gears to give Bran a long and passionate kiss.

“I knew you’d get here,” he says.

“I didn’t.”

He turns me to see the view, his hands tight around my waist. “Your place is here, Captain, in the sun,” he whispers in my ear. “Don’t ever forget that.”

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hosted by Good Choice Reading Blog Tours

Top Ten Tuesday #5: Top eight authors I own the most books of

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.
Each week, they will post a new Top Ten list that one of the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join, just link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Top eight authors I own the most books of

I'm not going to include digital copies here, or else I'd never finish counting. Only physical copies count on my list. 

               1. Marc Levy

He is one of my favorite authors of all time, actually. I own 13 of his books and I hope he'll keep on writing for a long time to come. He's one of the authors I rely on to make me laugh and cry and also teach me something with every book. He's also one of the few authors I don't get tired of rereading, even if I already know his books by heart.

               2. Sophie Kinsella

Another amazing author. I own 12 of her books and they actually have a special shelf that no other author's books is "allowed" to sit on. Yeah, it might seem strange, but the publisher I got them from made the smart choice to print all of her books with matching covers, so my OCD is tickled ten times more than it's used to :P 

               3. Charlaine Harris

For those who don't know she wrote the Southern Vampires Mysteries, the first big series I ever read and the one that introduced me to the magical world of urban fantasy. It was also the very first series I read in which many of my hopes came true when it came about vampires (if you're wondering, all of the vampires I've previously read about couldn't have sex. Poor guys, right?) I own the entire series (13 books). I don't see myself finishing it (because I heard how the series ended and honestly I've been rooting for that Viking vampire for so long, I can't bring myself to read anything else than a HEA for him), but this series will always hold a special place in my heart.

               4. J. R. R. Tolkien

I can't not mention another of my favorite authors. I own 7 of his books and I am anxiously waiting to get my hands on his other books. 

               5. Anne Rice

This is the author that started my love for vampires. I picked up one of her books out of curiosity and her vampires made me love them and fear them at the same time. It's also why I love these creatures so much. I own 7 of her books. Unfortunately I don't have her entire Vampire Chronicles series, but I hope one day I'll own the ones that I'm missing.

               6. J. K. Rowling

I think it's only natural Rowling is on this list. I own 8 of her books and I'm starting to warm up to the idea of getting the newer books as well. I hope I'll like them, I don't know yet. I'm also one of those people that still hope she'll one day return to Hogwarts :D

               7. William Shakespeare

These are actually my grandmother's books and they're actually older than me. I think they're older than my Mom, too. They're on a big shelf in my hallway and they're taking up an entire row. I have no idea how many books there are, really. But they're old and they smell like heaven to me :D

               8.  Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Ok, I think I flooded Twitter with my love for The Caster Chronicles series, but I do. I love it so much. I own the entire series and I'm now waiting for the nice people working at the post office to deliver me the Dangerous Creatures book.

What authors take up the most shelf space in your house?

Book Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Covenant #1
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Release Date: September 19th 2011
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi—pure-bloods—have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals—well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:

Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.

Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem—staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

I've had this book on my TBR for so long, it's actually slightly embarrassing. I told myself it was time to read it when that's what Random Generator chose when I did the January Random Reads hosted by the awesome Sarah. I'm very glad I read this book.

If you know me, you know I'm pretty obsessed with Armentrout's books. Not only are the heroes incredibly hot (and let's be honest here, some of her villains too) but they are really, really good. The one reason I tried to stay away from this series is that it has ancient gods and their offspring. I love ancient mythology and there are few authors that managed to write about the amazing creatures the ancient people believed in. It's a difficult task, when you think about it, or so it seems to me, and I've had a few disappointments along the way. Granted, I've read some very good books that I'll probably reread until I'm old and wrinkly, but those are few. I'm happy to tell you that the series Covenant is now part of that "very good books" list.

I have to mention that I loved this book so much, I could not help myself from binge reading the entire series. I read it in like a week and obviously I regretted my decision when I realized there's a certain character that gets his own book, so I basically wanted to smack myself because I now have to *gasp* wait for it's release. I mention this because I'll try really hard not to give away anything from the next books, so my review might seem a little...weird. Anyway, back to the review.

I loved Alex. She's the type of character that I love reading about. She has a big mouth and that sometimes gets her into a lot more trouble than she expects, she rarely has a filter so basically she just blurts out whatever it is that she has on her mind. She's also brave and she'd do a lot of things for the people she loves. And as the story goes on I just liked her more and more and more. She has a temper and that also gets her into a lot of trouble. But she's loyal and she rarely backs down from a fight, even though it might be what she should do at times.

Aiden is interesting as well. He's easy to like, even though he plays hard to get. I understood his reasons very well though, and in the books that follow the reasons for why he's so cold at times will be explained in detail (sometimes painfully so). He's strong and daring, but he's cautious and sometimes he's the voice of reason. He is a really good character and he grows on you the more you read the book.

And then there's Seth. I'm afraid I can't give you a description of this character without sounding like a lunatic baboon trying to pass on as a human. But he was... he was amazing. He's the kind of anti-hero you just have to love. You can realize he'll have a huge role to play in this series early on. And it's obvious he's tortured and he's hiding stuff, but he just gets under your skin so fast, you just can't help but love the guy.

Before I end this review, I have to talk about something. I noticed there are a lot of  readers that talked about the similarities between Half-Blood and another book, namely Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Did I notice any similarities? Yes, there were a few moments. The story takes place at a school for special people and the heroine falls for the wrong guy and there are a few other details as well. However, Alexandra had her own voice and I never actually even thought about Rose while reading this book. And let me tell you, I didn't notice anything similar between Aiden and Dimitri, aside from the fact that both are trying really hard to be cautious when it comes to the heroines. And they're both men (d'oh). Other than that I did not see other similarities, or I was able to get over them, because the story developed in ways I did not expect at all. I just noticed the fact that I loved the book so much I just had to read the rest of the series and that I had to read it fast.

All in all, I adored this book and I would definitely recommend this to anyone that: 1) loves Jennifer L. Armentrout's books and 2) loves smart-mouthed heroines and silent, sexy heroes and lots of adventures and danger and lots of twists and turns of events that will leave you open-mouthed and on the edge of your seat.