Friday, July 27, 2018

The Heart of Aleppo by Ammar Habib with Giveaway



The Heart of Aleppo


After standing for over 7,000 years, Aleppo's ruin came overnight. Separated from his family during the night the rebels attacked the city, thirteen-year-old Zaid Kadir is lost in the middle of a war zone. Alongside his friends, he is forced to survive the dangers of a civil war he does not even fully understand. Zaid witnesses the destruction of the brutal Syrian Civil War as it grows more deadly by the day and rips his city apart. However, as he braves this destruction, as he desperately tries to survive this catastrophe, he discovers something. Zaid realizes that it is in the darkest hours when humanity's spirit of hope burns brightest.


Goodreads * Amazon

 

About Ammar Habib


Ammar Habib is a bestselling and award-winning author who was born in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1993. Ammar enjoys crafting stories that are not only entertaining but will also stay with the reader for a long time. Ammar presently resides in his hometown with his family, all of whom are his biggest fans. He draws his inspiration from his family, imagination, and the world around him.

Social Media Links

Website: www.ammarahsenhabib.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ammarahsenhabib

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmmarAHabib1 @AmmarAHabib1

Blog: www.ammarhabibblog.wordpress.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Ammar_Habib

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ammar.a.habib/ @Ammar.A.Habib


Contest!

In conjunction with the release of The Heart of Aleppo, I am running a giveaway from July 26th to August 3rd. The prize of the giveaway is a signed copy of my national award-winning novel, Memories of My Future. Memories of My Future is a historical/inspirational novel that was published in 2016. It received several accolades after its release, including the Independent Press Award in May 2017.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Read an excerpt from Clandestine (Ascension #2) by Hannah Rials


Welcome to the book tour for Clandestine, the second book in the Ascension series by Hannah Rials. Today I am bringing you an excerpt from this book. You can also check out a bit about the first book, Ascension. Be sure to add them to your Goodreads!




Clandestine (Ascension #2)

by Hannah Rials

Genre: YA Paranormal
Release Date: July 2018
Aletha Press

Summary:

Cheyenne Lane never believed it could come to this—imprisoned by her own family, who are plotting to overthrow the Vampire Council. Ripped away from the happiness of her summer romance and friendship in New Orleans, Cheyenne is forced to begin her education at Clandestine, the secret Deuxsang University, one year early.

She is guarded constantly, separated from her best friend Anne, and desperate for any word from Eli and the witches. Meanwhile, her cousin Lilith has discovered that Cheyenne possesses all four vampiric abilities—unheard of for a Deuxsang—and intends to use her in the Ascending’s rebellious scheme.

At 17, Cheyenne finds herself the center of a centuries-old conspiracy involving the vampires, Deuxsang, and witches, and everyone is telling her who she should trust and what she should do. Her head is too full of voices and opinions, and it’s time for Cheyenne to make up her own mind.

Is she ready to step into the role she was made for? Who can she trust? Who is her friend and who is her enemy? Is she really a born leader? All questions that only she can answer. As the information and scenario gets more confusing, she knows she must listen to her intuition if she is going to shift the truth from all the lies.

Read the Kirkus Review.

Read an excerpt:
Prisoners. Me. Anne. We’re actually prisoners. Held captive by our own families. For our own good? My brain’s still having a hard time processing all this insanity, and we’ve been trapped in here for a week now. No word from Eli or Mason, or even my parents, who apparently support this. I keep asking myself how they can let this happen, how no one is speaking up against this, and I can’t come up with a good answer. This is all ridiculous, even for my parents, who I can’t begin to understand. To let their psychotic niece imprison their youngest daughter in order to “fix her” based off some insane plan to overthrow the vampires?

Everyone’s completely lost their minds.

Are they so desperate for me to be normal that it’s come to this? I glance at Anne sitting at her desk. She hasn’t really spoken much since we have expended all of our escape possibilities. We’ve failed so many times, but not for lack of trying. Thomas is just too paranoid and thinks too far ahead. Deuxsang are highly discouraged from practicing our abilities on our own kind, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I tried compelling our guards—and I somehow succeeded without any training whatsoever— but we didn’t even make it to the stairs before Thomas stopped us.

Anne tried dreamwalking, searching for Mason or Eli or anyone, but we learned that it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. You just think of someone, see their dream, and slip right in, right? Wrong. Anne got shoved out of so many dreams, and she couldn’t even find Mason. She ended up with a migraine that made her throw up all over the place for a couple days. I really didn’t want to try inflicting, but seeing Anne so sick, paired with my own desperation, made me get over it.

Plus, it was kind of fun to see the guards weak.

That was the closest we came to being free. I had all of our guards crying out on their knees, wishing for release. I made myself sick to my stomach. I had my hand on the front door, when all of a sudden, we were both knocked to the ground. My eyes went black when my head cracked against the cold tile of the Lacroix’s foyer. We didn’t even see who hauled us back upstairs and locked us in our impassable tower. Ever since then, Anne hasn’t said much to me.

It’s three days, and I’m going mad. I’m normally the one telling her to shut up, but now I can barely get a syllable out of her. It’s like she’s broken. And I get it, I guess. This is all falls back on me. My cousin is the one with the insane, suicidal plan; my family is the one keeping us here. I’m the one they need to “fix.” My boyfriend…ex-boyfriend…is the one who got himself kidnapped. If it weren’t for being friends with me, she’d be cuddled up in some jazz club, listening to Monde Musique and staring all moon-eyed
at Mason. Life would be normal.

Well, as normal as a rule-breaking Deuxsang can get.

And now she knows the truth about her brother— that he was different, like me, and the Council took him for it. Now he’s probably dead. Her parents let it happen, but what’s worse, they lied to her about it. How could they do that to her? How could anyone do that? I saw a piece of her break when her mom finally told her the truth. She can’t look at either of her parents now. Again, that’s my fault.


 Buy from Audrey Press


Hannah's favorite quote from the book:
“If you fail, you'll wish you'd never been made.”






Ascension Testimonials

"Their love story anchors the novel, the first installment of a series, and sets the stage for the cliffhanger ending. An entertaining and promising series opener about an appealing human and vampire hybrid. " -Kirkus Reviews

What an extraordinary debut novel with new and intriguing twists on vampires—a strong female protagonist as one. I already can’t wait for book two. -Jill Murphy Long, author of The Conduit

This book is by the far the BEST YA/Adult fiction that I’ve read in a very long while. So exciting!-Rebecca F

The wait is over-Ascension is here! Thrilling and entertaining, like the experience on a crazy roller coaster. Hannah has grown into the most amazing writer. Watching her journey has been as much fun as holding the book in my hands. A "must read" for YA and thriller fans! -Valarie B.

Rials has created a complex, fascinating, hidden world within our world. And I think we're just beginning to scratch the surface." -Kris Whorton

"Dark, surprising, and full of twists, the Ascension series is a delectable addition to vampire canon. Rials paints a rich and engrossing world of vampires, half-vampires and witches– each with their own agenda. Cheyenne’s struggle to be free is one that every girl will recognize, and I rooted for her as she bristled against the roles cast for her by society. It’s the story of a girl yearning to come into her own powers, powers both frightening and beautiful." -Maggie Thrash, author of L.A. Times Book Prize nominee Honor Girl


Buy Ascension at Audrey Press


About Hanna Rials


As Maryville native and a senior in college at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Hannah Rials began writing her first novel, Ascension, at age twelve. Her first YA novel Ascension is a modern day teenage romance filled with "double-blooded" vampires and revengeseeking witches. Published by Aletha Press of Maryville, TN is the second book in the trilogy, Clandestine, was written and editing while she was a full-time college student. After graduating from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a BA in Creative Writing, she will be attending college at Bath Spa University’s MA (England): Creative Writing for Young People; a yearlong master’s degree.

Hannah is a vampire fanatic, a New Orleans lover, and a dog obsessor. She loves her friends, family, and finding new adventures. To keep up with Hannah, you can find plenty of pictures of her corgi Buddy and her travels on Instagram @herials because who doesn’t love a cute corgi picture? Connect with Hannah on Facebook, Twitter and via her website.

“I feel like I am living proof that dreams do come true.”- Hannah Rials

Author Links:


Blog Tour Organized by:









Thursday, July 12, 2018

Freaking Fast by David Pereda with Giveaway


Looking for a new futuristic YA action/adventure novel? Then welcome to the blast for Freaking Fast by David Pereda! Check out an excerpt and then follow the tour for even more. Make sure you leave a question or a comment for the author! There's also a giveaway that you can enter along the way.

Please note that affiliate links are present in this post. Should you make a purchase through one, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.



Freaking Fast


The city is Asheville, North Carolina, and the year is 2066. As renowned mathematician Alexandra Martin travels in her self-driving car to assassinate the love of her life, she reminisces about how they met and fell in love fifty years earlier in middle school when she was a thirteen year old poor math whiz and he a wealthy teenager. Alex recounts her struggles to be admitted to the best private school in the county, her happy teenage years running track, and her close relationship with three handsome and charming boys: Xavier, the intellectual; Andrew, the golden boy; and Vitali, the suave foreigner. One by one, she visits the three boys of her youth, now successful professionals in their sixties, one of whom is her intended victim.



https://amzn.to/2Jk318W


Read an excerpt:
Year 2066
8:30am. Asheville, North Carolina

Today I’m going to kill the love of my life.

This deliberate act should not to be misinterpreted for what the sensationalistic media will surely call a crime of passion, because it isn’t. There’s nothing passionate in what I am about to do. My action is premeditated, has been planned for a long time, and will be executed for the benefit of our city, our country, and our crumbling world – as well as for my own peace of mind.

I know people say things they don’t mean all the time, especially when they are stressed out, upset, or angry. People lie either to hurt others or to protect themselves or simply because they like to lie. I swear that every word written here is the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. May He also forgive me for this murder I’m about to commit.

I have chosen this date for a reason. Today is my birthday, and the anniversary of our first kiss, fifty years ago. I turn sixty-three years old today. Five decades ago, I would have been considered an old woman at this age, gray-haired and wrinkled, and possibly
overweight. But that was then. Nowadays, thanks to the medical advances of the past fifty years, of which I have partaken freely – they’re there, right, so why not make use of them? I’m in the prime of my life. I look and feel not a day over thirty and have the sculpted
body, the vigor, and the mental acumen of a highly intelligent woman in her twenties.

When I was a teenager, there was this beautiful model named Cindy Crawford, who in her sixties looked like she was in her late thirties and was an example to women all over the world. She was to me. But the world has evolved, and that was then, and this is now.
Were Cindy Crawford alive today she would look like my older sister or maybe my young-looking mother, even though we would both be about the same age.

But I digress. I have, perhaps, too much on my mind. Images of the past keep streaming through my head. I think of the love of my life, him, and wonder what could have been but wasn’t; what was and shouldn’t have been.

I feel like crying as I see my life play out, in black-and-white like an old movie, on the screen of my mind.


About David Pereda

David Pereda is the award-winning author of nine novels, including Havana Blues and However Long the Night, as well as the Havana Series of thrillers featuring the dashing Doctor Raymond Peters and the beautiful but deadly Cuban assassin Marcela. He has traveled to more than thirty countries and speaks four languages. Before devoting his time solely to writing and teaching, David had a successful international consulting career with global giant Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked with the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Qatar, among others.

A member of MENSA, David earned his MBA from Pepperdine University in California. He earned bachelor degrees in English literature and mathematics at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

He lives in artistic Asheville, North Carolina, with his youngest daughter Sophia, where he teaches mathematics and English at the Asheville-Buncombe Community College. He loves sports and is an accomplished competitor in track and show-jumping equestrian events.

Author’s Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/David-Pereda/e/B002BML17Q


David will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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