Iron Pendulum by Megan Curd Blog Tour (Review/Excerpt) + GIVEAWAY

Hey hey readers! Today I am honored to be on the tour for Iron Pendulum (Book 2 of the Periodic Series) by Megan Curd! Thank you so much for stopping by! I've got all kinds of goodies including an excerpt and a giveaway in addition to my review! Check it all out below, but first, lets learn a little about the book and our author!

A month ago, Avery thought the world ended outside Dome Four. Thought she was one of the few of her kind. Thought the war that brought the human race to the brink of extinction was over.

But a month can change everything.

After fighting to escape a tyranny she didn't even know existed, Avery has had to come to grips with all the secrets she's uncovered. But more secrets continue to come to light, revealing how little of her world she truly knew. When evidence starts to show that Dome Four might be under siege, Avery knows what she must do.

Returning to the dome she longed to escape is a challenge for Avery, but now she knows there’s corruption lurking in the shadows. A massive steam shortage leaves half the dome without power, and people are falling ill. Dying.

And they’re blaming Avery.

A month can change everything. One more month could kill everyone. The clock is ticking.

 

Cover designed by Mae I Design

*Can I just add a note here that I am obsessed with the covers for this series. Seriously. They are amazing, and spot on!

   
About Megan Curd: Megan Curd is a graduate of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. While having always enjoyed reading any books she could get her hands on, Megan didn’t begin writing until a friend encouraged her to do so while in college. When not writing, Megan enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Photography, traveling and snowboarding are hobbies she loves, and she doesn’t turn down the opportunity to play XBox with her brother and friends when it presents itself. Megan currently resides in Ohio with her husband and son, where she is trying to convert them into Buckeye fans.    

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads |

Excerpt

Footsteps sloshed through the water and raced toward us.

Zeroes were in the tunnels, and they were dangerously close to the Alliance Headquarters. To Dome Four.

My heart clamored in my chest, catching the rhythmic pounding of feet hitting the cement. The water rippled and sloshed around my feet. Rats skittered back from where we’d come, abandoning the tunnel as fast as possible. I looked up, shining my headlamp down the abyss in time to see exactly what I didn’t want to come face to face with ever again in my life.

Burned men hurtled down the passageway in ragged military uniforms. Pieces of fabric clung to their charred bodies, melted onto their muscles like a new skin to replace their original flesh.

They tumbled over one another with no regard for their fellow comrades. Their snarls ripped through the air like wild animals, and they pushed one another in a battle to reach us first.

  
Giveaway 

We've got a amazing prize up for grabs! What can you win?  A $5 GC AND an ecopy of Steel Lily (Book One in the series)
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where can you get yours?

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My Thoughts:

If you are reading this, it means one of three things. One, you are here for the blog tour (thanks for stopping by!). Two, you read my review of Steel Lily and were so excited you had to come check out Iron Pendulum! Or three, you found a random link on Facebook, Google, or Twitter and were kind enough to click it (woohoo, nice call sir or madam!). Bottom line, I don’t care how you got here. What I care about? GO BUY THIS BOOK. Okay, maybe that was a little crazy… Woo. Let start from the beginning.

Any of my regular readers will tell you that I am a reading machine. I push out books like it’s going out of style, especially this summer. I have loved all the variety I have come across this summer in my reading craze and I owe a lot of it to a new direction I wanted to take. I told myself I was going to step back for a little while and read some books that were “outside my norm”. First I hit Zombie books (and look where I am now, getting ready to start my 5^th one. I have a problem) and now I have hit my second milestone: Steampunk. I’ll be honest. I’m not sure why I have veered away from Steampunk. I guess in my head I was just picturing a much more….. hipster kind of genre. Does that make sense? All I can think about when I think of Steampunk is cogs and big goggles. Oh hey, I was kind of right! J Steel Lily was my very first foray into the Steampunk subgenre, and I have to say, I LOVED IT. I couldn’t imagine Iron Pendulum not being just as amazing, well I was wrong… It was even better! WOAH!

So here’s the deal, I picked up Steel Lily (book 1 in the series) on B&N a few weeks ago after having been selected to participate in this blog tour for Iron Pendulum. Generally I never join blog tours or promos for books that aren’t the first in a series that I am not familiar with. It just means I have a whole lot more work cut out for me and that usually doesn’t fit into my time constraints (especially in  a series such as this where each book is over 300 pages). I got my copies of Steel Lily and Iron Pendulum about a month ago, yet they just sat in my library. I really wasn’t all that excited about reading them, but I really can’t tell you why. With mere days until my blog tour, I told myself I needed to get reading. Well… I read them alright. I sat down and read the entire ~300 page Steel Lily in one sitting. The. Entire. Thing. Oh hey, then guess what? I did the exact same thing less than 24 hours later with Iron Pendulum. Need I say more? You guys know how much work goes into to reading a book and it isn’t something I take lightly. The fact that I read the entire novel in one sitting, should be all the explanation I need to give right here! I COULD NOT PUT THESE BOOKS DOWN!

I will go ahead and state my only negative comment for this novel series. They are YA in true fashion. 15-16 year old characters, no sex, etc. That is kind of my complaint. These books have some seriously adult undertones. I was really taken aback to see that the main character is only 15 and her boyfriend is 16. In my head I am having a really hard time picturing any teens of that age having the mental capacity that these teens do. Even if they had grown up in the environment that they did. I have a sister who recently turned 14 and I’ll turn 23 in a month, I just can’t imagine the characters in this book being closer to her age and maturity than mine. It was just really hard to picture the characters as so young to me. That being said, I think the part that kind of irked me is that the characters were essentially adults. Sexual tension, all the drama, they just didn’t strike me as teenagers. I really would have liked to see this series set with 17-18 year olds instead of 15/16 year olds. I know it sounds miniscule, but I think most everyone can agree that that extra two years can change a whole lot in terms of both physical and metal maturity. Aside from that, I have nothing negative to say about Iron Pendulum!

I have to say that Iron Pendulum is more than likely going to be on my list of the 10 best books I read this year, it series was that great for me. I do not regret reading this series for one second. It was an awesome YA read that really was a step in a great reading direction for me. In my review for Steel Lily, I said that it had strong parallels to another hugely popular YA series. In Iron Pendulum, I actually began to say very strong parallels to another hugely popular YA series which I would generally see as a bad thing, but in this instance I actually liked this series way more than either of them! I’d like to see THIS series turned into a box office smash, global-phenomenon film series! I think people would love it. Hollywood execs, LOOK HERE! Haha!

With the ending IP left us with, I know there are going to be more books in the series, but I have actually never connected with Megan Curd to ask her! I will be contacting her soon to let her know how amazing her series was! I’ll be sure to relay any info I get about book 3 for you guys! Trust me, by the time you binge read the first two books like I did, you will be begging for book 3!

Just like with Steel Lily I am sure that Iron Pendulum will leave me with a book hangover that lasts well into my next read. I feel bad for the author that has to follow Megan Curd in my brain right now. Yes people, overly critical and cynical just said that. I’m telling you guys, this book was Ah-MAZING! All in all, I am going to give it a solid 5 star rating! I hope all the awesome things I’ve said here help to sway you in the direction of definitely taking a chance on The Periodic Series, like I did. You will NOT be disappointed! Have you read this series? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

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Huge thanks to KP Simmon, Megan Curd, and the rest of the amazing team at InkSlinger PR, for allowing me to participate in this blog tour!Be sure to check out all the links above and grab yourself a copy of Iron Pendulum, you won't regret it! Also, enter the giveaway! Until next time, Happy Reading!

-Ethan

Steel Lily (The Periodic Series #1) by Megan Curd Review

Hey readers and Happy Saturday! Thanks for stopping by to check out my review of Steel Lily by Megan Curd! Tomorrow, here on this very blog, I am hosting a blog tour stop for Iron Pendulum, book two in this series. I am very excited about that, but I wanted to review book one for everyone before I got to that point! This series was my first adventure into the Steampunk subgenre and I was beyond impressed! Before we get down to my thoughts, here's a little info about Steel Lily!

AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She’s a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn’t any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

…Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything…including the fate of your world.

     
Cover designed by Mae I Design

*Can I just add a note here that I am obsessed with the covers for this series. Seriously. They are amazing, and spot on!

   
About Megan Curd: Megan Curd is a graduate of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. While having always enjoyed reading any books she could get her hands on, Megan didn’t begin writing until a friend encouraged her to do so while in college. When not writing, Megan enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Photography, traveling and snowboarding are hobbies she loves, and she doesn’t turn down the opportunity to play XBox with her brother and friends when it presents itself. Megan currently resides in Ohio with her husband and son, where she is trying to convert them into Buckeye fans.    

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads |

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My Thoughts:

Any of my regular readers will tell you that I am a reading machine. I push out books like it’s going out of style, especially this summer. I have loved all the variety I have come across this summer in my reading craze and I owe a lot of it to a new direction I wanted to take. I told myself I was going to step back for a little while and read some books that were “outside my norm”. First I hit Zombie books (and look where I am now, getting ready to start my 5^th one. I have a problem) and now I have hit my second milestone: Steampunk. I’ll be honest. I’m not sure why I have veered away from Steampunk. I guess in my head I was just picturing a much more….. hipster kind of genre. Does that make sense? All I can think about when I think of Steampunk is cogs and big goggles. Oh hey, I was kind of right! J Steel Lily has been my very first foray into the Steampunk subgenre, and I have to say, I LOVE IT. AHHH!

So here’s the deal, I picked up Steel Lily on B&N a few weeks ago after having been selected to participate in the blog tour for Iron Pendulum (book 2 in the series). Generally I never join blog tours or promos for books that aren’t the first in a series that I am not familiar with. It just means I have a whole lot more work cut out for me and that usually doesn’t fit into my time constraints (especially in  a series such as this where each book is over 300 pages). I got my copies of Steel Lily and Iron Pendulum about a month ago, yet they just sat in my library. I really wasn’t all that excited about reading them, but I really can’t tell you why. With mere days until my blog tour, I told myself I needed to get reading. Well… I read them alright. I sat down and read the entire ~300 page Steel Lily in one sitting. The. Entire. Thing. Oh hey, then guess what? I did the exact same thing less than 24 hours later with Iron Pendulum. (But we will get to IP tomorrow!) You guys know how much work goes into to reading a book and it isn’t something I take lightly. The fact that I read the entire novel in one sitting, should be all the explanation I need to give right here!

Unfortunately I went straight into book 2 without pausing to write my book one review so I’m really having to be careful here to avoid spoilers!

This book was full of so many amazing quotes. Megan Curd really knows how to strike a nerve with her writing. She can have a scene FULL of suspense, action, and heartbreaking emotion, and still can add a line that makes you raise your fist in agreement! While I could share any of the near 20 quotes I highlighted from this novel, I’ll just share my favorite:

Her face was fierce, “If you don’t know what you’d die for, you haven’t lived passionately enough.”

That one quote made me seriously yell “YES!” at 3AM while I was reading. So true. So very true.

Back on the topic of Megan Curd and her ability to craft a heartbreaking emotion, dang… Curd hit me hard with a few of the scenes in this novel. There is one death that I honestly did not see coming and It was a hard fall to read guys! I’m still not entirely sure why it happened, and unfortunately I saw a huge parallel to another hugely popular YA series (one that we don’t speak of on this blog), but I hope that was just me being overly analytical! 

The themes Curd explores in Steel Lily are numerous and keep the story firmly planted at its’ roots without allowing it to become over-bearing. Survival, trust, the importance of family, self-preservation, loyalty, honor, etc I could go on and on. This one novel really did a great job of exploring so many things.

I am usually not a huge fan of the dystopian genre, but this novel really put a different take on it. The future United States (the 2080s) has been devastated by nuclear war and the surviving populations live under domes due to the atmospheric pollution. That was a neat twist on the futuristic setting! Our story takes place in both Detroit and in the Twin Cities, but I really don’t know that the city distinction was necessary. The way Curd has crafted her stories, it could be any two towns. Her visual descriptions are so detailed with perfection that I can see her world so easily when I close my eyes and imagine. It really is a testament to her writing style to describe such a beautiful gift.

This is my first Megan Curd novel, but I can assure you that I will be reading and all that come across my screen in the future. For my very first ever foray into the Steampunk genre, I am elated to give Steel Lily a solid 5 star rating. It (along with IP) have been placed on my “favorite reads of 2014” shelf! A spot they so rightfully deserve!

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Where can you get yours?

ONLY $0.99!!

 (Went down in price since I purchased my copy!) 

  
Alright guys, that's all I have for you guys on the topic of Steel Lily by Megan Curd! I know this is a little shorter than my usual posts, but I just wanted to give you guys a quick overview and review before my blog tour stop for Iron Pendulum tomorrow! Click on the IP cover below to be taken to my blog tour post! Thanks so much for stopping by and until next time, Happy Reading!

-Ethan

Deadland's Harvest (Deadland Saga #2) by Rachel Aukes Review

Hey readers, happy Friday! I hope you are all having a fantastic week. I've been reading like a crazy person this week so I have had lots to share with ya'll. Today I wanted to make sure I gave y'all a review and I have an awesome one for you. You may remember a couple of weeks ago where I reviewed the first two novels in Nazarea Andrews' The World Without End series and absolutely loved them. They were my very first literary journey into the paranormal sub-genre of zombies. I am not a zombie fan, well.. I never was before then! So... riding that high, I sought out other zombie series and came across Rachel Aukes 100 Days in Deadland on Goodreads. I didn't expect that I would strike gold again with a zombie novel, I never would have imagine I may have just came across one of my favorite series of the year! Up for review today? An amazing Horror/Sci-Fi novel from Rachel Aukes, book 2 in the Deadland saga: Deadland's Harvest! Here's a little bit about the book and the author before we get to my thoughts!

The seven deadly sins with a shambling twist...

It has been one hundred days since the zombies claimed the world. Cash, along with forty-two survivors, have found safety in the secluded and well-guarded Fox National Park. The leaves are changing colors, a beautiful, brutal reminder that winter is coming. As the survivors prepare for freezing months without electricity and not enough food, they learn of massive zombie herds several hundred miles north…and headed their way.

To save the park, Cash must find a place for the survivors to hide from the migrating herds. If Cash and her small band of volunteers don’t succeed by winter, the Fox survivors just may become Deadland’s Harvest. 

 

Rachel Aukes

Rachel Aukes is the international bestselling author of 100 Days in Deadland, which was named one of the best books of 2013 by Suspense Magazine and one of the best zombie books by the Huffington Post. She also writes romantic science fiction and fantasy under the pen name Berinn Rae, which includes the RWA award-winning short story "Stealing Fate," a USA Today recommended read. Rachel lives in Iowa with her husband and an incredibly spoiled sixty-pound lap dog. When not writing, she can be found flying old airplanes and trying (not so successfully) to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.  

 

Find Rachel Aukes

Website ** Twitter ** Goodreads

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My Thoughts:

About a week ago I wrote up a huge review of 100 Days in Deadland (book one in this series) and said that I had no idea how Aukes could top that novel. I had no idea how she could hope to capture my attention a second time as she had the first. Well… I definitely shouldn’t have said that, because I definitely opened mouth and inserted foot. Rachel, you did it again. Deadland’s Harvest knocked it out of the part. Rachel came in guns blazing with novel number two and literally, kicked it’s ass.

Many novels have such a clear distinction between their various parts in the series. Harvest picks up right where 100 Days in Deadland let off and keep on going. I don’t even think I got through the very first chapter before my heart was racing and I was anxious as can be to keep doing. Aukes style of writing keeps you on your toes the entire time. You never know what the next page may hold. With Zeds (zombies) coming left and right and a migrating horde headed straight for the Camp Fox survivors, it’s up to Cash, Clutch, Jase, and the gang to relocate Camp Fox to safety. “Safety”. It wouldn’t be a zombie novel if it didn’t come with gruesome deaths and heartbreaking emotion. Thankfully Aukes has us covered on both fronts.

Aukes did such a fantastic job with setting the tone and introducing the characters in 100 Days in Deadland that she really didn’t have to spend any time backtracking on this story. With some series you can pick up any book and not read them in order and somehow not miss anything, this is not one of those series. If you haven’t read 100 Days in Deadland then don’t even think about reading this one. Seriously, 100 Days in Deadland was one of the best books I have read all year, you should be throat chopped if you think about skipping it to read this one. Seriously.

Anyway, like I said, if you want to know about the characters and back story, click below this review to read my review of 100 Days in Deadland, because I really don’t see a point in rehashing all that here.

As I am writing this review, I am going back through my highlights and quotes from the novel and want to seriously stop writing just so I can read it again. It was that great. Aukes is such an amazing author that really leaves me completely satisfied and emotional exhausted. GAH. I told you guys in my last review that there was an emotional part that made me tear up a bit, but (and I’ve already told Rachel this) DAMN YOU RACHEL AUKES, she had me nearly bawling at a few of the scenes in this novel. It was rough. It really is a sad, horrible world that these characters are living in and they seriously cannot catch a break. You learn so much about the human experience from Aukes and her true-to-life interpretations through this series. I will admit that I haven’t read any of her other works, but I will be checking them out after these amazing novels.

Where 100 Days in Deadland was a retelling of Dante’s Inferno, Deadland’s Harvest was labeled as “a journey through the seven deadly sins with a shambling twist”. It was a shambling twist alright. Aukes takes each sin and seriously parallels the storyline in such an amazing fashion that you wonder if she has some sort of psychological connection with Dante Alighieri himself! I will admit that each “sin” chapter confused me a bit, it was not until the very end that I was able to fully identify the “gluttony”, or “pride”, etc in the particular section. It takes a bit of an investigative reader to identify the sins, but the journey is worth the interpretation. Honestly, everything about this second trip into the Deadland Saga was fulfilling as the first. I can’t think of a single criticism that I have. This story was different than book one, but not in a negative way in any way, shape, or form.

Also, note to Rachel Aukes, I have spent the past four years working at Bass Pro, a store EXTREMELY similar the one described in one important scene of the novel and let me tell you, I’ll never look at it the same again! This novel really, really will change your views on some things. I am not sure if that was the intention of Aukes, but it really was great to see her visions for the fall of society. Unlike other zombie novels I have read that take place after the zombie apocalypse, this series tells of the apocalypse in its’ entirety. Book one starts out with the first day of the “apocalypse” (for Cash) and continues on their entire journey. It’s remarkable, it truly is.

I seriously feel like I could go on about this novel all day long, but I’ll stop and let everyone get back to their real world. All in all, I am giving Deadland’s Harvest the same review I gave to its’ predecessor, a 5+ star review. Seriously, there is nothing more I would have asked for. This novel was damn near perfect. I said in my 100 Days in Deadland review that “few books have had the profound effect and left the lasting book hangover” as that one, well, I can say the very same about Harvest. It’s been 4 days since I finished and it’s still all I can think about! Aukes says she plans on releasing the final installment in the Deadland Saga series out towards the end of the year, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know how I’ll make it through! To quote Aukes, I’ve been to prep myself because “shit goes down” in book three. That scares the hell out of me. I am so anxious to see how this story ends. I have been skimming through the final story in Dante’s journey through hell to see how Aukes may finish out her amazing saga! AHH!!! Excitement! As soon as I hear more info/cover reveals/blurbs/etc for book 3, you will find it all right here! Why are you still reading this? GET TO READING!

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100 Days in Deadland Review

*Click the cover below*

Where can you get yours?

Alright readers, that's all I have for you on the topic of Deadland's Harvest by Rachel Aukes. An incredible read that has forever changed the way I will view books of this genre. It isn't often I can say I feel honored to have read a book, but this is definitely one of those times. Aukes has truly created close to the perfect Horror/Sci-Fi read. This book has received many, many accolades since its' release and truly deserves each one. I am absolutely giddy about starting Deadland's Harvest ASAP. Thank you to Mrs. Rachel Aukes for supplying me with an ecopy of this novel after meeting her on Twitter a few weeks ago! I cannot wait to read more of her works (including book 3 later this year)! Be on the look out readers, they will be here eventually! Until next time, Happy Reading!

-Ethan