Teaser Tuesday - 2/2/16

Photo credit: Jane Green's website

I just finished physically reading my first biography since high school (though I've listened to a few audiobooks), so as a reward for my accomplishment, I decided to take it easy with a fun, chick-lit book. And nobody does that better than Jane Green, who happens to be the author of one of my very favorite books of all time--Bookends. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys these sorts of books.

This, however, is not Bookends. It's a slightly newer release called Swapping Lives (or Life Swap, for those in the UK). I'm about halfway through and really enjoying myself.

What if a successful, single Londoner and a comfortable, Connecticut mother of two were to walk in each other's shoes for a month? Vicky Townsley is the director of Poise! magazine and lives a glamorous London life. She has everything she wants-except marriage, children, and a house in the country. Amber Winslow has a stone mansion in Connecticut, two kids, and a nanny, but she hasn't found the fulfillment she had expected from being a wife and mother. When she spots an intriguing contest in Poise! Amber impulsively enters, never expecting to be picked. ​

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Then hit up A Daily Rhythm to add your link.

And the teaser:

Vicky is sitting on the floor of the tiny second bedroom that doubles as her office, sifting through yet another pile. Thus far she has found four unpaid bills, all of which are a minimum of four months old; two invitations to parties, both of which she realizes she not only missed, but never even rsvp'd; a press release about a new method of laser vein removal that she'd brought home from work, not wanting anyone to know she was about to get the spider veins in her legs treated, and had been looking for for weeks; her driver's license--how in the hell did that get there? Wasn't it always in her bag?--and some readers' letters that she had brought home to respond to, but that had swiftly been eaten up by the pile.

Teaser Tuesday - 1/12/16

Photo credit: Amazon

I don't know if anyone else out there watches "The Librarians" on TNT, but I'm completely addicted to it. I fell in love with it when it first premiered in November of 2014, and I think I've watched every episode of its two seasons at least twice. The only problem I have with it is that it only airs for ten episodes.

So once the second season finale aired a couple weeks ago, I've been jones-ing for books and/or other shows that are just like it. Some online research led me to a series called The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman. The books are on the young side of YA and the characters/stories are a little flat, but the world she created is just so interesting that I've been breezing through them. I'm on book 3 now, but I''m going to put the summary and teaser from book 1. All three books follow different characters and different objects, but they all revolve around the New York Circulating Material Repository.

Elizabeth has just started working as a page at the New York Circulating Material Repository - a lending library of objects, contemporary and historical, common and obscure. And secret, too - for in the repository's basement lies the Grimm Collection, a room of magical items straight from the Grimm Brother's fairy tales. But the magic mirrors and seven-league boots and other items are starting to disappear. And before she knows it, she and her fellow pages - handsome Marc, perfect Anjali, and brooding Aaron - are suddenly caught up in an exciting, and dangerous, magical adventure.​

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Then hit up A Daily Rhythm to add your link.

And the teaser:

This had to be the strangest interview I'd ever heard of. Was I going to lose the job because Dr. Rust didn't like the way I sorted buttons?

Teaser Tuesday - 6/16/15

Photo credit: The copyrights for the images are held by Katie Little | Dreamstime.com, James Hearn | Dreamstime.com, and Michael Shevlin. The copyright for the cover is held by Patricia L. Miller.

As I'm finishing up what will hopefully be my last round of edits for Pack Supremacy, I thought now would be an appropriate time to use it for Teaser Tuesday. This book has really been a labor of love, but there are so many things that I'm realizing I'm proud of, and I can't wait for you all to be able to read it.

If you're interested in reading more than the teaser, the prologue is on my website.

The Big Bad Wolf is loose in New York City...

Quinn Dunlap has never been the most involved member of the Mid-Atlantic Werewolf Pack. She isn't like her brother Carson, who's been training for his role as Beta since they were little kids. She isn't even like her best friend Lucy, who signed up to be a Guardian the day she turned 18.

So even with their help, Quinn's not handling her new responsibilities very well. Nor is the Pack handling all the recent changes that well either. They're in turmoil, and things are about to get even less stable when little girls start dying and all the signs point to a rogue werewolf.

...and he's got a connection to Lucy.

Lucy has always been a "hit first" kind of girl, but she's had to step up recently and start using her brain before her fists. She knows that letting her temper get the best of her can have dangerous consequences, especially with a rogue werewolf in town. But when things get a little too personal, Lucy's recklessness lands her in a situation she might not be able to escape.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

I'd never considered myself a violent person. I mean, just because I'm a werewolf doesn't mean I'm bloodthirsty and uncivilized. But if I had to listen to Carson and Lucy go one more round about whether we should allocate more Pack funds toward buying new Guardian equipment or reinforcing the fences at our borders, I was going dig out the gun Geoffrey had left in his office and shoot them both.

I just wouldn't load it with silver bullets.

Probably.

Teaser Tuesday - 4/14/15

Photo credit: Kate Wilhelm's website

I first read Death Qualified back in high school, and I remember enjoying it enough to buy two other books in Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway series, but I don't remember any of the details. And since I've been in a mystery mood lately, I thought I'd start from the beginning and read the series in order.

Nell Kendrick's husband disappeared seven years earlier, abandoning his young family. Nell hasn't seen him since, until the day Lucas Kendricks arrives at the edge of her property and is shot and killed. Accused of his murder, Nell turns to lawyer Frank Holloway for help. But Frank knows he cannot win this case alone. He calls upon his daughter, Barbara, who remains "death qualified," legally able to defend clients who face the death penalty if convicted.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

"Isn't that why? And you think when the time comes, when I have pushed and poked and probed and got nowhere, I'll help you persuade her that it's the only way out for her, the only way to be able to have any time with her children before they're both grown up."

Teaser Tuesday - 3/10/15

Photo credit: Jennifer Lynn Barnes' website

Killer Instinct is the second book in The Naturals series. I loved the first book and the entire premise, really. The best description of this series that I've heard is that it's "Criminal Minds for the YA world." And the best part is that Jennifer Lynn Barnes has a PhD in Psychology, so I feel confident that the books are accurate. I highly recommend checking these out if you like YA mysteries.

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother's murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean's incarcerated father-a man he'd do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer's psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer's brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

People are allowed to care about you, and don't tell me that when people care about you, they get hurt. That's not you talking. That's something you were told.

Teaser Tuesday - 2/10/15

Photo credit: Goodreads

I just checked this out from the library, so technically I haven't even started reading it yet, but I will soon. It's been on my to-read list for a while, and I'm looking forward to finally getting to it.

It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now...everything has changed.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone.

Teaser Tuesday - 1/13/15

Photo credit: Barnes & Noble

I've been meaning to read The Princess Bride ever since I saw the movie, and I finally realized the library had ebook copies to check out. Score! So far, it's every bit as quirky and fun as the movie.

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

The horse’s name was “Horse” (Buttercup was never long on imagination) and it came when she called it, went where she steered it, did what she told it. The farm boy did what she told him too. Actually, he was more a young man now, but he had been a farm boy when, orphaned, he had come to work for her father, and Buttercup referred to him that way still.

Teaser Tuesday - 1/21/14

Photo credit: V.C. Andrews' website

I watched Lifetime's new Flowers in the Attic movie this weekend, which was surprisingly not as bad as I expected it to be. What it did, though, was prompt me to want to read the rest of the series, which I never did. I just started Petals on the Wind, and I'm reading it in between other things, but I thought I'd use a teaser from there today.

For Carrie, Chris and Cathy, the attic was a dark horror that would not leave their minds, even while they built bright, promising new lives. Of course mother had to pretend they didn't exist.

And grandmother was convinced they had the devil in them.

But that wasn't their fault. Was it? Cathy knew what to do.

She now had the powers she had learned from her beautiful mother. She knew it in the way her brother still yearned for her, in the way her guardian touched her, in the way all men looked at her.

She knew it was time to put what she knew to the test. To show her mother and grandmother that the pain and terror of the attic could not be forgotten... Show them.

Show them--once and for all.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

"Do you always wear more than one outfit on Sundays?" he asked.

"Only on the Sundays I run away," I said.

Teaser Tuesday - 1/14/14

Photo credit: The copyrights for the images are held by Michael Shevlin, Jose Antonio Sánchez Reyes | Dreamstime.com, and Iakov Filimonov | Dreamstime.com. The copyright for the cover is held by Patricia L. Miller.

So my blog schedule fell apart before I ever started, but that's okay. I'm getting back on track this week. But since I'm still reading UnSouled, this week's teaser comes from my book, Pack Mentality, in honor of my completion of the first draft of book 2.

The Mid-Atlantic Pack has a problem: there’s a man-killing werewolf loose in their territory. As a Guardian—a protector of the Pack and its Alpha—Quinn Dunlap is one of the people tasked with finding him and eliminating the threat… by any means necessary.

But what Quinn finds isn’t the big bad wolf; it’s a scruffy, scared boy named Elijah who was bitten three months ago and has been running ever since. So instead of the typically accepted execution he probably deserves, she takes pity on him and brings him home to the Pack Alpha, a firm but fair werewolf named Geoffrey Reynolds. Geoffrey’s always respected Quinn as a good judge of character, and this time is no exception. He lets Elijah stay, but he makes it clear that the boy is Quinn’s responsibility.

Quinn doesn’t want Elijah to be her responsibility. She doesn’t even want to be her own responsibility. When she left five years ago, she had honestly never thought she'd be moving back to Capitoline Hill, a decidedly not hilly compound in New Jersey. So maybe it's time for her to accept that sometimes you have to go home again, no matter what the saying is. And maybe, maybe, it's also time for her to get over some of those fears that drove her away in the first place. But when someone attacks the Pack, Quinn finds out that everyone, even her Alpha, is afraid of something. And sooner or later, those fears always come back to haunt you

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

I'd always known violence was a part of Pack life, from the first time I'd seen my uncle Rick come home from an assignment with blood on his shirt. But I'd never been so directly affected before.

Teaser Tuesday - 1/7/14

Photo credit: Neal Shusterman's website

What's this? A Teaser Tuesday post?

One of my new year's resolutions is to establish a real blogging schedule (to go with my real writing schedule), and part of that schedule includes Teaser Tuesdays because... well, I think they're fun. Also, because it prompts me to read more, which I fell sadly behind on at the end of last year (I blame Joss Whedon for this, but that's a whole different story).

So without further ado, the first Teaser Tuesday book of the year is UnSouled, the third book in Neal Shusterman's fantastic Unwind series. WARNING: The blurb for this book may contain spoilers for the first two books in this series.

Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL Unwinds. But for the first time, they’re not just running away from something. This time, they’re running toward answers, in the form of a woman Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her, and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to bringing down unwinding forever.

Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. Because he knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human.

With the Juvenile Authority and vindictive parts pirates hunting them, the paths of Connor, Lev, Cam, and Risa will converge explosively—and everyone will be changed.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

Following Grace's plan, they pull into the supermarket parking lot and leave the squad car there, along with the keys and the deputy's gun--because a missing gun will beg too many questions. Leave the man his car and his gun, and he might just keep quiet to save himself from humiliation.

Teaser Tuesday - 6/25/13

Photo credit: low resolution image from Wikipedia

I haven't even really started Primary Colors yet, but I saw the movie a few years ago and loved it, so I might have done a little happy dance when Amazon delivered my copy of the book. I've been in a very political mood lately (watching too many reruns of The West Wing probably), so if anyone has any recommendations for political fiction--preferably ones that deal with the Presidency and/or the White House--I'd appreciate it. They've been difficult to find.

A brilliant and penetrating look behind the scenes of modern American politics, Primary Colors is a funny, wise, and dramatic story with characters and events that resemble some familiar, real-life figures. When a former congressional aide becomes part of the staff of the governor of a small Southern state, he watches in horror, admiration, and amazement, as the governor mixes calculation and sincerity in his not-so-above-board campaign for the presidency.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

My inability to recall that particular moment more precisely is disappointing: the handshake is the threshold act, the beginning of politics. I've seen him do it two million times now, but I couldn't tell you how he does it, the right-handed part of it--the strength, quality, duration of it, the rudiments of pressing the flesh.

Teaser Tuesday - 6/11/13

Photo credit: Anna Quindlen's website

Still reading Anna Quindlen's Thinking Out Loud. It's a collection of her columns, and I really like her views and the way she articulates them. As with all nonfiction I read, it's slow-going, but I'm really enjoying it.

Thinking out loud is what Anna Quindlen does best. A syndicated columnist with her finger on the pulse of women's lives, and her heart in a place we all share, she writes about the passions, politics, and peculiarities of Americans everywhere. From gays in the military, to the race for First Lady, to the trials of modern motherhood and the right to choose, Anna Quindlen's views always fascinate.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

In the newspaper business we assume certainty; when you spell Steven with a v it is because you know that's how Steven spells it. But we are moving these days into areas of great uncertainty.

Teaser Tuesday - 6/4/13

Photo credit: Anna Quindlen's website

Yesterday, I found out that I could check out ebooks from the library. I'd already known this, but I assumed I had to actually GO to the library to check them out, which is increasingly more inconvenient since I just moved. But, NO. I can check them out and return RIGHT ONLINE. There was much dancing, much celebrating, and (later, after I renewed my library card) much borrowing of books. Seriously, is this not the most exciting news?

So now that I have a few (too many) new books on my Nook, this week's teaser comes from my annual attempt at reading nonfiction. I like Anna Quindlen's fiction books and I think she's a funny, insightful lady, so I'm trying to be optimistic, despite the fact that I haven't finished a nonfiction book since I was in high school and had to do book reports.

Thinking out loud is what Anna Quindlen does best. A syndicated columnist with her finger on the pulse of women's lives, and her heart in a place we all share, she writes about the passions, politics, and peculiarities of Americans everywhere. From gays in the military, to the race for First Lady, to the trials of modern motherhood and the right to choose, Anna Quindlen's views always fascinate.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

"But is it really necessary," he asked after some preliminaries, "for you to wear your gender on your sleeve?"

For a moment I thought about telling him where my gender really resided, but he seemed pleasant and earnest and I didn't want to embarrass him.

Teaser Tuesday (5/28/13) and a Donation Bomb

Photo credit: Rachel Schieffelbein's website

So many people have books coming out or that just came out! I'm having trouble keeping up with everyone. It so happened that this book is exactly what I was looking to read today, so I swooped it up.

When Mabel's best friend, Amber, drags her along on a double date she finds herself falling for Lance, the obnoxious class clown whom she swore she'd have no interest in.

The only problem is, she's not sure if she's really the girl Lance is into, or if, like every other guy she knows, it's really Amber he's after. One thing is clear, if Mabel wants to be the lead in her own love story, she needs to start acting like it.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

I, on the other hand, feel weighted down. Sandbags are tied to my arms and legs, making it difficult to walk away.

The next thing of note is a Donation Bomb that Leigh Covington posted about on her blog.

David Farland (Wolverton)'s son Ben, age 16, was in a tragic longboarding accident on April 3rd, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, and pneumonia. He was in a coma, but has recently awakened. His family has no insurance.

Ben's treatments are already over $1,000,0000.
Ben will need extensive therapy as he relearns how to walk.

Ben's estimated hospital bills are looking to be somewhere around $1.2 MILLION! So what can we do? We can help! Even the smallest donations can go a long way when everybody gives a little bit.

THE PLAN: Donate any amount, large or small, to the Help Ben Walk Fund (feel free to donate more, if you can.)

THE DATE: Friday, June 7th!

To find out more about Ben and other ways you can help, CLICK HERE.

Also - on JUNE 4th there is a TWITTER BOMB! Spread the word and use hashtags #davidfarland or #helpwolverton! You can use these posts to get points in the Rafflecopter giveaway below!

Please help spread the word by sharing on your blog, tweeting, posting on Facebook, or any other way you know how. For those who help spread the word, one lucky person will receive an Ebook through Kindle or Nook of David Farland's book, Million Dollar Outlines! Check out Leigh's blog to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

Teaser Tuesday - 5/21/13

Photo credit: Jane Green's website

It's been a busy week or two for me. Most of that time has been spent with normal life craziness, but the rest has been furiously editing Pack Mentality. See, what happened is that I wrote most of book 2 for NaNoWriMo last year, and, in doing so, I changed about half the rules I'd come up with for my world. Good, necessary changes, but the kinds of things my characters should know about in book 1.

I've still been making some time for reading though. I finished the latest Kitty Norville book (by Carrie Vaughn), and I just started Promises to Keep by Jane Green. Actually, I haven't even started it yet. It's sitting on my desk waiting for my lunch break to read it.

Callie Perry lights up every room she enters, and adores her settled family life in tony Bedford, New York. Steffi is Callie's younger sister. At thirty, she's still a free spirit bouncing between jobs and boyfriends in Manhattan. Their long-divorced parents, Walter and Honor, share little besides their grown daughters. But when Callie receives a difficult diagnosis, the family will come together for one unforgettable and ultimately life-changing year.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

Steffi elbows her hair out of her eyes before grabbing a frying pan, splashing olive oil liberally into it and scraping the finely chopped onion into the oil. Ignoring the sweat running into her eyes, she spins around, hurrying over to the counter opposite, where Jorge is slicing spring onions.

Teaser Tuesday - 5/14/13

I'm not going to lie, I had to check three times to make sure it was actually Tuesday. But since it is, here we are. I'm actually in between books at the moment, so I'm going to do this week's TT from Pack Mentality, the first Capitoline Hill book. I don't have the cover to put up yet, but it's almost done, and I'm really, really excited about it.

Pack Mentality is up on Goodreads now, so check it out here.

The Mid-Atlantic Pack has a problem: there’s a man-killing werewolf loose in their territory. As a Guardian—a protector of the Pack and its Alpha—Quinn Dunlap is one of the people tasked with finding him and eliminating the threat… by any means necessary.

But what Quinn finds isn’t the big bad wolf; it’s a scruffy, scared boy named Elijah who was bitten three months ago and has been running ever since. So instead of the typically accepted execution he probably deserves, she takes pity on him and brings him home to the Pack Alpha, a firm but fair werewolf named Geoffrey Reynolds. Geoffrey’s always respected Quinn as a good judge of character, and this time is no exception. He lets Elijah stay, but he makes it clear that the boy is Quinn’s responsibility.

Quinn doesn’t want Elijah to be her responsibility. She doesn’t even want to be her own responsibility. When she left five years ago, she had honestly never thought she'd be moving back to Capitoline Hill, a decidedly not hilly compound in New Jersey. So maybe it's time for her to accept that sometimes you have to go home again, no matter what the saying is. And maybe, maybe, it's also time for her to get over some of those fears that drove her away in the first place. But when someone attacks the Pack, Quinn finds out that everyone, even her Alpha, is afraid of something. And sooner or later, those fears always come back to haunt you.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

With another sigh and a nervous glance at me, Eli stripped down and crouched to begin his change. Out of courtesy, we didn't look at him, but after a moment he said, "I can't do it with all of you here."

Trick sighed in exasperation. "Maybe it is like going to the bathroom," he said. "You got a shy bladder?" Eli flipped him off.

Teaser Tuesday - 3/26/13

Photo credit: Rachel Vincent's website

Yup, still re-reading Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series. I jumped ahead a little to the fifth book, If I Die, which I think was my favorite. The seventh (and final) book, With All My Soul came out today, and I can't wait to get my copy of it!

WARNING: Blurb may contain spoilers for previous books in the series.

Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee—her scream is a portent of death.

But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out.

Yeah—it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher is really an incubus, who feeds from the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend’s delinquent ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human either.

But Kaylee’s running out of time, and those who love her will do anything to save her life

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

"So how 'bout this..." Emma turned from the mirror to face me directly. "I promise not to sleep with the hottest teacher on the face of the planet--math facts and harmless fantasies only--and you promise to tell me if he turns out to have horns or a forked penis. Deal?"

Teaser Tuesday - 3/19/13

Photo credit: Rachel Vincent's website

In preparation for the release of the last book, this week I'm re-reading Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series. I just started the second book, My Soul to Save, this morning. This isn't my favorite Rachel Vincent series (the Bound series is), but I enjoyed all the books a ton, and I love the characters, especially Tod (seriously, there can't be people in the world who don't love Tod. It's impossible). It's also the first series I can think of that has to do with banshees.

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad’s ironclad curfew and putting her boyfriend’s loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls for a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld—a consequence they can’t possibly understand. Kaylee can’t let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk...

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing a little dignity wouldn't fix," Tod snapped. "So could we please not mob the three-thousand-plus-year-old reaper like tweens at a boy-band concert?"

Teaser Tuesday - 3/12/13

Photo credit: K.S. Lewis' website

Shh, it's still Tuesday somewhere. (That's a lie.)

Anyway, I have another special Teaser Tuesday for you this week because I'm in the middle of reading K.S. Lewis' new, soon-to-be-published novella, The Chosen of Ky'kias, which will be available on April 10. And I gotta tell you, it's pretty awesome, guys. I'm only about a third of the way through it, but I'm loving it.

 

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

 

And the teaser:

"The Cherry Blade," Glenn muttered to Oran as they watched Mara get stopped by her father and heckled about lunch. "Why couldn't it be called the Mighty Ogre Crusher or something?"

Teaser Tuesday - 3/5/13

Photo credit: D.R. Cartwright (DRC) from a concept by Ella Wilson

I'm still reading Fragments by Dan Wells this week, but I wanted to do a very special Teaser Tuesday to celebrate the launch of Overcoming Adversity, an anthology edited by Nick Wilford. Nick is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction. When not writing he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also co-running a campaign to get a dedicated specialist college built in Scotland. If you like the teaser, you should buy the book (links after the blurb). The money goes to a great cause.

A collection of seventy moving and uplifting original pieces - real life, flash fiction, and poetry - about battling against the odds and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. The contributors include Amazon bestselling authors Alex J. Cavanaugh and Kyra Lennon, and the cream of upcoming talent.

The anthology is part of a fundraising effort to send the editor's stepson, Andrew McNaughton, to a specialist college in England. Andrew has cerebral palsy, and is a remarkable young man with a promising future. However, the free further education options offered in his own country of Scotland will not challenge him and allow him to progress. In order to access the education he deserves, Andrew will have to pay exorbitant fees, thus creating a situation of discrimination.

Help us get Andrew to college by buying a book that runs the full gamut of human emotions, ultimately leaving you inspired and glad to be alive. Whatever struggles you are going through, our sincere hope is that this book will help.

To buy Overcoming Adversity, go to:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Smashwords
And check out the book's Goodreads page.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser. Because I couldn't decide what story to pull a quote from, I went with the first few sentences of the book:

Sunny’s heart pounded in time with the steady drumbeat on the roof. She had never heard rain like it. She was not given to fear but tonight the sounds unnerved her... just a little.