Books: Dear Adam ~ Ava Zavora ~ promo

Title: Dear Adam

Author: Ava Zavora
Publication: September 16th, 2013 (First published August 31st, 2013)
Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance

About Dear Adam

“You’re the more real to me than any man I’ve ever known …”

To book blogger Eden, Adam is the embodiment of every literary fantasy she’s ever had. Intelligent, wickedly funny, sexy, and attentive – he and his fascinating life seem right out of a novel. Their whirlwind relationship is so intense and all consuming that soon she can’t imagine being with anyone else.

But there’s one little thing that’s keeping Adam and Eden from their happily ever after.

 

 About Ava Zavora

In her childhood, Ava Zavora  used to ride water buffaloes and wade in swamps. When she discovered books, she would go adventuring with Anne of Green Gables, the Pevensies, Bilbo Baggins, or Alanna of Trebond. She incurred her mother's displeasure for reading too many romance novels, so she learned to hide them and read underneath covers with a flashlight late at night. Now, she travels and write dark fairy tales and romantic novels about adventurous women. And she still stays up too late reading, even though she doesn't get in trouble for it anymore.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Pinterest | Goodreads

Inspiration behind Dear Adam Movies and novels with a series of letters or emails

In Dear Adam, book blogger Eden enters a passionate online relationship with a mysterious Englishman named Adam. Although they eventually talk over the phone, their communication begins with tweets, then progresses to e-mails, chats, and texts, the modern reincarnations of the old-fashioned love letter. Because they communicate this way, Dear Adam can be characterized as an epistolary novel (one written in the form of a series of letters).

Two of my favorite movies of all time are epistolary, involving real letters or e-mails. Who hasn't seen You've Got Mail, where two rival bookstore owners unknowingly send each other flirtatious e-mails under the Internet monikers of NY152 and shopgirl?

Very different in tone but using the same device in a fantasy framework, Alex and Kate exchange letters and fall in love in The Lake House. Easy right? Wrong. She's writing from 2006, he's writing from 2004. Confession: I burst into tears at the same scene, every time I watch this movie. You know that scene - the one where she's on her knees with one hand on the mailbox post ... just watch it with a box of tissues.

An oldie but goodie is Roxanne, starring Steve Martin as a modern day Cyrano de Bergerac. Beautiful Roxanne receives letters so passionate and persuasive that she falls in love with (and takes to bed) its writer, Chris. Only Chris didn't actually pen the letters ...

I have to mention this one, because I know this is probably the number one most romantic scene of all time for many, many women. Ryan Gosling. 365 letters. 'Nuff said. 

 

Which are your favorite movies or novels featuring letters/e-mails?

Stacking The Shelves #5 ~ Manuscripta Haul

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! This is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and anyone can get involved!

So I went to a dutch book event called Manuscripta at August 31st, lots of Dutch authors discussed their books including some international author. Here I had the chance to meet the wonderful Tatiana de Rosnay!!!! Author of Her Name Was Sarah, which was also turned into a movie! I also read Her Name Was Sarah and even though I don't like books about World War II, I really loved this book! It was one of those emotional rollercoasters, very well written! So I was really excited to meet the author! I hadn't expected that she would be funny and very kind but she was! She was wonderful, took her time signing my books and I even took a picture with her!!! It was a great experience!  I also bought a lot of books which you will find below!



1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Movie Tie-In): A Novel
2. Het Appartement
3. Blindness ~ José Saramago
4. Het onvoltooide Verhaal
5. De Roep van de Rune (non fictie)
6. De Kleur van het Duister
7. Symbolen van Afrika (non fictie)

Wat heb jij gekocht, geleend of gekregen deze week? What did you get this week?

Swinging Saturdays #14 Punk Nostalgic top 5

Swinging saturdays is a musical meme hosted by Ice Cold Passion, to share our passion for music. The goal is to make a top 5 (or Top 10) for whatever genre or artist you like or get creative and share a theme based music top 5. For example a bookish soundtrack, funny songs, song to listen to on a rainy day top 5.

It saturday already!! Weeks really do fly by! Today we are going back in time, back to the 90's when I was still in high school and I listened to a lot of punk at the time. Today I am going to share some of what I used to listen to back then!

1. The Offspring ~ Self Esteem

2. Green Day ~ She

3. Rancid ~ David Courtney

4. Blink 182 ~ All The Small Things

5. Sum 41 ~ Fat Lip

Buy the albums here:

So that's it for my Top 10!!!

What is your Top 10 this week? 

Want to host Swing Saturdays next week? 

Send me an email: icecoldpassions@gmail.com. I would love to hear what kind of music you like!

Books: Bitter Fruits ~ Sarah Daltry

Title: Bitter Fruits
Author: Sarah Daltry
Series: Bitter Fruits #1
Publisher: SDE Press
Publishing date: 25th, June, 2013
Number of pages: 185 p.
Age category: New Adult
Language: English only
Other books in this series:
Immortal Star (Bitter Fruits #2)

I received an ARC copy of this book from Netgalley, many thanks to the publisher. This however in no way influences my honest opinion.

About Bitter Fruits

Attending a vampire-themed masquerade party seems like a strange way to spend a night, but Nora is sick of frat parties and bars. Meeting Alec was just a bonus. Despite their immediate attraction, however, Alec is wary of involving himself with Nora, and when she pushes it, she discovers that Alec has secrets that could destroy them both. Is she willing to risk everything for a man she hardly knows? How far into darkness will he take her?

My review

So I read this a while back, but even though the names are a bit fussy, the story stays clear in my head. I loved the fact that Sarah used a story from the bible and turned it in a very original paranormal romance story, even an original love triangle! Yes, really it was quiet different from all love triangles I have seen.  And I loveeeeeeeeeeeed how it worked out, that would be every woman's dream! Uh, well if we can handle it, that is :).

The story, Sarah took from the bible is one we all, one about two brothers. Even though I figured out pretty soon who they were (which is just because of my knowledge of the bible that I figured this out), it still had some really surprising factors. 

Another fun character was Lilith, Adams first wife who did not make it into many bibles, but if you google it you'll find some cool information about her. Really google it, or hear about it her on my blog, I will talk about her some more since I am starting a bit of a Lillith obsession. So I am probably going to research her some more. 

All in all this was a great read! I read this in one (very long) night, I ended up going to bed at six o'clock in the morning! That is how great this was, you just want to keep reading on until you are finished!

Rating

So for my rating, 5 skaters  for originality, 5 skaters for the surprise factors, overall rating a surprisingly (uhum) 5 skaters.

Books: Deadly Kisses ~ Kerri Cueva ~ promo

About Deadly Kisses

Aiden Grant has a killer kiss. Literally. And it’s not every reaper who gets to work with the Sixteenth President. Sure, Honest Abe likes to throw out history lessons with reaping assignments, but when you’re favoured by the ancients, grim reaper life is pretty sweet for a newly dead seventeen-year-old. Then things get messy. Aiden is assigned to reap the soul of Bee, the only girl he has ever loved. When Aiden’s kiss of death fails, intertwining their souls, she is still very much alive and they are both in trouble. The ancients want Bee, who has special powers of her own, and they’ll do anything to get her. Some rules are meant to be broken, even if that means Aiden must bargain with his own soul to save Bee.

Who knew the afterlife could get so complicated?

About Kerri Cuevas

Kerri Cuevas was born and raised in Rhode Island. She moved to New Hampshire in 2005. When she's not writing, she's chasing chickens on her small farm or searching for the ultimate mac-a-cheese recipe. Kerri went to college for Early Childhood Education but now writes books for young adults full-time. Her storytelling stems from watching too many horror flicks as a teen, but she no longer needs to sleep with the lights on. Author

Author links:

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook page 

Buying Links:

Movies: Warm Bodies

Movie title: Warm Bodies
Release date: 2013
Director: Jonathan Levine
Run time: 98 min
Book title: Warm bodies
Author: Isaac Marion

About Warm Bodies

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight.

My review

Wow, what a great movie! Really, really great! Actually I totally fell in love with it! It was so cute, a zombie falling in love with a human. And gosh isn't he cute? Can I say that? Well I did didn't I?

I think they captured this really well, now I really want to read the book! Yeah bad thing right? I mostly read the books before the movie, well if I know there was a book. Did you ever watch a movie and afterwards heard there was a book? Yeah that really makes me want to run to the book store and go get it!

Anyways, I was amazed that I liked the whole Zombie approach, as you might know I am not a big fan of zombies. My first zombie experience was when reading Mortality read my review here:  Click here. I got to say after zombie experience 2 I really think I am going to get a three and four as well. Well of course I am going to read the second book in the Mortality series, and I am getting Warm Bodies now too!

Buy the book or movie here:

Books: Earth Dwellers ~ David Estes ~ promo

 

Your favorite Dwellers and Country Saga characters come together in this epic seventh book! As President Borg Lecter threatens to annihilate the Country tribes in order to expand his glass-domed empire, Adele ventures into the belly of the beast. Her only hope of survival is the consolidation of Dwellers and Country power before it’s too late. Former demagogue President Nailin is eliminated, yet civil unrest infects every alliance. To save Adele, President Tristan faces his greatest challenge yet: unifying unfriendly Dwellers in the Tri-Realms to raise an army against Lecter. Meanwhile, Dazz must convince the Ice Country leaders to march with Siena and the Tri-Tribes on the gates of the Glass City. The world sits on the edge of a knife. Will Adele, Tristan, Dazz, and Siena defeat Lecter and his army of killers before the Glassies wipe them off the face of the Earth?

See where it all begun with The Moon Dwellers and Fire Country

To celebrate the release of The Earth Dwellers by David Estes, the fourth book in both The Dwellers series and Country Saga, David is giving away UNLIMITED free eCopies of Fire Country, book one in the post apocalyptic, dystopian, Country Saga. A little over a year ago, David published his first young adult dystopian series, The Dwellers, and it has changed his life forever. Since then, he’s gone from struggling Indie author to fulltime writer, he’s watched in amazement as his Goodreads fan group has swelled from 300 members to over 1,600, and growing. He's been featured on Buzzfeed, as one of the '15 Book Series To Read If You Enjoyed The Hunger Games', and has just signed on to Andrea Hurst and Associates literary agency. Andrea will we working with David to expand both the Dwellers and Country Saga, taking David's career to a whole new level.

So before the two series collide in The Earth Dwellers, grab the coupon code below and download your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Share the code with your family, friends and literary inclined pets. The only thing David asks for in return is that if you enjoy the read and continue on with the series, to please leave a positive review on Amazon.com, Goodreads and blogs for each of his books that you read.

 

The Earth Dwellers will cap off an eighteen month journey that has taken me from unknown Indie author to still-mostly-unknown fulltime Indie author. The change is a subtle one for most people, but for me it’s a dream come true. To the hundreds (and now maybe even thousands!) of readers who have come along for the ride with me, either by reading the Dwellers Saga, the Country Saga, or both, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now down to business. There may be some of you who have only read the three books in the Country Saga or only the three books in the Dwellers Saga, and are now thinking you’ll read The Earth Dwellers, which is supposedly the 4th book in BOTH the Country Saga and the Dwellers Saga. Well, that’s awesome! However, I must highly recommend that before reading The Earth Dwellers that you read the three books in BOTH series. Trust me, doing so will greatly enhance your experience, as The Earth Dwellers will be taking significant characters from both series and crashing them together (yes, like a water country wave) into an action-packed tale of struggle and loss and hope and friendship… And maybe a little love, too.

The Country Saga

Fire Country  Ice Country  Water & Storm Country

The Dwellers Series
The Moon Dwellers  The Star Dwellers  The Sun Dwellers

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he’s now been happily married to for more than two years.

A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 13 novels, 11 of which have been published.  In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and is now travelling the world with his wife while he writes books, and she writes and takes photographs.

David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes! Recently he’s been inspired by some of his favorite authors, like Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and Maggie Stiefvater.

David’s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.  He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.

Where you can find David Estes hanging out, waar je David Estes kan vinden:

David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite

Blog/websiteFacebook pageGoodreads author pageTwitter

Other Young Adult Books by David Estes, andere YA boeken van David Estes:

The Evolution Trilogy: Angel Evolution   Demon Evolution   Archangel Evolution

Children’s Books by David Estes, Kinderboeken van David Estes:

The Nikki Powergloves Adventures: Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born    Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council    Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers    Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure   Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming soon! Komt binnenkort)

Books: Visited ~ Janine Caldwell ~ Promo

Titel: Visited
Author: Janine Caldwell
Published in: 25th of May 2013
Publisher: Self published
Language: English only
Age category: Young Adult
Number of pages: 216 p.
Kind of story: standalone

About Visited

Seventeen-year-old Joanna Murphy has lost faith in her life. Vying for her mom’s attention, she’s resentful of her stepdad’s intrusion to their family. Her best friend, Tommy, has no clue she’s in love with him as he dates girl after girl without noticing how it tortures her. The final kicker, though, is God’s sick joke to make her freakishly tall when everyone knows boys prefer petite girls.


Then in a bizarre accident Joanna meets James, a breathtaking teen who appears to her after an unusual falling star sighting. Suddenly, her dream for an alien encounter becomes all too real. But when she finds her life has been made unrecognizable, she’s forced into an explosive study of the original design for her life that just may have her regretting every wish she ever made.

Buy this book at:

Barnes and Noble ~ Amazon

About Janine Caldwell

Janine Caldwell was born in Concord, CA and raised in the small San Francisco Bay Area town of Clayton. Four days after her high school graduation, Janine attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and graduated with a degree in English.

Janine now lives in Anthem, AZ with her husband and two sons. As a lifelong literature fanatic, she knew it was only a matter of time before she would become obsessed with writing her own work. With relatives like the Brothers Grimm and Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), she figured fantasy writing had to be in her DNA.

Books published by Janine include Visited, a YA coming-of-age fantasy, Rematch and Double Fault—the first two books of The Vortex Series. The final book in this YA fantasy romance, Deuce, will be released fall 2013.

Website ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Books: Bear Heart ~ K.J. Colt

Titel: Bear Heart
Series: Klawdia, Book #1
Author: K.J. Colt
Publishing date: 23 May 2013
Publisher: Self published
Language: English only
Number of pages: 100 p.
Kind of story Novella
Other books in this series:
Refuges, Book #2

About Bear Heart

“Women serve men, and you must prove that you can be a man before you may lead.”
The Bear tribe have always ruled the Nation of Ruxdor, though with no male heirs to continue the line, Klawdia, the chieftain’s daughter and only child, must compete in a bestial rite of passage against four other tribal boys to retain her family’s sovereignty.

The competition is set among the perils of the Death Peak Mountains and pits representatives from Ruxdor's five strongest tribes—Bear, Lion, Wolf, Snake, and Hawgrald—against each other in a race to slaughter their tribe’s animal and return home. Each competitor is overseen by an opposing tribe’s elder to discourage dishonesty.

My review

First thought: I thought I was going to get a shifters story, a bear shifter or something. I wanted to read some good old shifters story. This was not one of those stories,  no shifters but real bears, wolves, snakes, birds and lions.

By the way, Lions in the snow? The setting of this story is in the middle of winter, it's freezing, the ground is covered in snow. I find weird to place a lion in this environment. Maybe it's a prehistoric lion, lets hope, because the modern lion's habitat would be a "little" warmer, like Africa hot.

Allthough this was not what I was hoping for, the story turned out to be pretty great! It was really well written, nice and short (only a hundert pages) which makes this in my book a novella. I thought Klawdia was a strong character, I like her but in some cases she was a bit naive. But on the other hand, the betrayal came as a bit of a suprise even for me too. Ok another great thing about this book are the original names!! They sound a bit Scandinavian, also they go very well with the setting and the tribes.

Rating

All in all I enjoyed this very much and I am looking forward to reading the next installment in this series, because the author left us with a big cliffhanger! If you enjoy short reads with lots of action, a historical feel and strong hero this is for you!!! I give this read 4 skaters!!!!

Music ~ The Villagers ~ Becoming A Jackal

I was listening to the Villagers, last weekend and thought wow the lyrics is kind of suiting for this book, instead of Becoming A Jackal Klawdia is becoming a bear. The music goes great with this book!! Enjoy

Books: My Mr Manny ~ Jennifer Garcia ~ promo

Title: My Mr. Manny
Author: Jennifer Garcia
Sort Story: Standalone
Publishing date: 27th Augustus 2013
Publisher: Renaissance Romance Publishing
Number of pages: 257 p.
Language: English only
Age category: Adult

Personal thoughts:

Good evening everyone, I am sorry to say I didn't get my review up in time (since I am not finished reading yet) so instead (honest me) decided to post the blitz. However since I am half way through and have an opinion about the first half.

I want to give you some kind of update on this book! And let you know why I did not finish this in time.

Short version: I was taken a back by this book, some part hit so close to home that I had to stop and gather my own emotions before continueing reading.

Really I cried till my eyes were puffy and red and the words on my kindle blurred into a blackish mash. The beginning of the book was not one of my favourites, it was so rushed up until about 22 %.  I felt like stopping (around 15%) if it did not slow down, luckily for me it did, but that was also when the tissues appeared. And I think I will need serveral more to finish this book.

So that was a little bit of what I thought about it so far! 
Note: this is not a review!! Just an update!
I just want to tell you that this is really worth your time! If you need more convincing (uh exaggerating a little here) check out my review when it is ready!

About My Mr. Manny

Mia Balducci misses her childhood days and yearns for the big, Italian family that she left behind in small town Massachusetts. At the tender age of sixteen, Mia moves with her bachelor father to Los Angeles, but no matter how many years pass, it never becomes home to her.

The years spent living with her father aren’t easy, especially since she can’t stop thinking about what she once had. Her enrollment in the University of Southern California promises to bring exciting changes to her life, but Mia winds up with big problems instead. When she runs into an old friend from her old hometown of Winthrop, she gets swept up in nostalgia, and she soon loses herself in a quickly-progressing romance.

When the fantasy falls apart, she is left to raise her precious little girl, Lucia, on her own. The demands of Mia’s work schedule and Lucia’s needs increase, and their lives become increasingly hectic. It is soon clear to Mia that she needs help. Luckily, her life-saving cousin saves the day and brings the mother and daughter a male nanny – their new “manny.”

After losing his high-pressure job on Wall Street, Dominic Roberts wants to follow his dreams to have a family. He’s already one fiancée down, and there are no likely prospects for another. In order to find the family he so desperately wants, he finds himself getting into the manny business. Since he is fully qualified to provide child care and is eager to leave New York City behind, his sister-in-law is able to land him a job in California working for his first client – the beautiful and intriguing Mia Balducci.

Will Lucia like the new man in her mother's life? Will Mia? And will this new trio discover the happily ever after they all so desperately seek?

Excerpt

I rolled over to face Dominic and he began to stir. I watched him breathe and took inventory of his precious face. His lashes were thick and short against his cheek. The stubble on his face had thickened a bit more and his lips stuck out in a pout. I pecked them and his eyes opened.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” I said as he stretched and yawned. He scratched at his stubble and rubbed his eyes. He was adorable in the morning.

“Mhmmm, it is a good morning,” he said with a sleep-coated voice. He wrapped and tightened his arms around me and then squeezed. “A very good morning.”

“I need to get up and get ready for work. Lucia will be up in a bit. But ...” I began to say.

“What’s wrong?”

I exhaled a deep breath. “No, nothing’s wrong, but ... well I really want you to move into my room now. Too soon?” I wasn’t afraid he’d say no, but for some reason I felt strange asking him that.

He scoffed. “Did you think I was going to sleep in my room after last night? I had the best night of my life” he said while peppering soft, slow kisses on my face.

“It was my best night, too, baby.” I kissed him one more time and got up. “So, it’s official then. You’re moving in here and we’re a real couple.” I jerked my head in a nod to emphasize my statement.

He rolled on top of me, pinning me down on the bed. “I thought it was a given, Mia. You’re stuck with me forever now. I hope you can handle me.” He laughed.

“Mhmmm, I can handle you all right. I just hope you can handle me.” I kissed his lips.

About Jennifer Garcia

Jennifer Garcia’s (aka Forbes Arnone) love of travel began when she went to the West Coast to visit her father at the age of three. Her home until she was sixteen was a small coastal town near Boston. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons, and two dogs.

Her lifelong love for reading and writing was put aside for many years while she made her way in the world and nurtured her young family. Even though she is older, and life never seems to settle, she’s finding her way while attending college full-time in pursuit of a B.A. in English Literature. She also runs a business, and is still caring for her family. Believing she can do it all, with the help of her family, she worked on her first novel during the late hours of the night while balancing the rest of her life during the day. Her hard work paid off, as her first novel, My Mr. Manny, will be published August 2013.

Facebook Page ~ Twitter ~ About.me ~ Authorsdb

Independent Author Network ~  Amazon - Forbes Arnone