Frenzy (Book One: The Frenzy Series) by Casey L. Bond Review

Hello readers! I am back from yet another long break (which I'll address in a later post) with my first of several reviews from my February reads. February was a really rough month for me so I only got a a handful of reads in. Thankfully they were all amazing and I'm so pumped to share my thoughts. Kicking off this review spree? Frantic, the latest thrilling release from the amazing Casey L. Bond! Before we get to my thoughts, here's a bit about the novel and our author:

After the world was ravaged by a viral apocalypse, Blackwater is one of the only colonies that remains. The survivors came together to create this safe haven. Nestled between a fierce river and a city’s flood wall, the well-being of its residents hangs on a long-established treaty with the night-walkers. Sounds simple enough, but lately, the people of Blackwater have been dying, and the humans believe the night-walkers are to blame.

Porschia Grant starves for more than her parents’ affection. Forced to enter the rotation, she will be given extra food rations in exchange for becoming a vampire’s breakfast and dinner for a week. The rotation has an extra responsibility as well: leave the colony and enter the dangerous forest to hunt for food. A night-walker will protect the hunters from the infected that roam the woods. But with the treaty hanging in the balance and tension between the humans and vampires rising, anything could happen in the darkness.

What would you do if your only chance at survival might kill you?

     

Casey L. Bond

Casey L. Bond resides in Milton, West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters.
When she’s not busy being a domestic goddess and chasing her baby girls, she loves to write young adult and new adult fiction.

In 2003, Bond graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marshall University in the field of Criminal Justice. 

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*****

My Thoughts:

As anyone who follows this blog will well know, I am a huge Casey L. Bond fan. Admittedly, I haven't read her entire backlog and just recently jumped on board the Bond Bandwagon, but even based on the few works I have devoured, I can say with confidence that she's one of the most talented writers I've worked with as of late. Her stories are full of gripping emotion and such vivid plots and settings that really leave a lasting impression on the mind of her readers. 

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am absolutely obsessed with anything paranormal. And vampires? My favorite. Bring it on. But what happens when you miss the living dead with the undead? Can a novel with both vampires and zombies work in a post-apocalyptic setting? Hell yes. And so much more. 

When it came to the plot of Frenzy, Bond really knocked it out of the park. It's extremely fast-paced and reads much like her previous Harvest Saga. A crippling dystopian future full of family struggles and more emotions than you can imagine, Bond crafted one of the most unique and original plots I have seen in quite some time. It was such an interesting twist on vampire lore that I couldn't devour it fast enough. Truly a testament to the power of Bond's writing talents. 

The characters in Frenzy were more than intriguing. They are all well rounded and left me feeling whole and more than satisfied with their character arcs and development. Filled with plenty of unexpected moments, Bond was able to really dig deep into the psyche of her character, both mortal and paranormal, to provide her readers with exemplary examples of how the genre should be tackled. 

The setting for Frenzy was probably my favorite aspect of the story. Maybe setting is the wrong word. Let's say tone. The story has this entire 'black and white' feel to it. It played out like a dark, Frank Miller-esque tone and setting that I could not get enough of. I had chills and could feel the tension in each scene Bond crafted. Truly a landmark in its' genre, Frenzy is a powerful beginning to a groundbreaking series. 

Speaking of series? Let's talk about the potential of this one. Bond end the first novel with quite the bang. One I can honestly say I didn't see coming. I am so anxious to see where Bond takes this story and to see if she can continue to build the momentum as she has in Frenzy.

Look out Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer, you've got competition in a big way!

It should come as no surprise that I am granting this spellbinding read from Casey L. Bond a near-perfect 5-star review. It was everything I didn't even know I wanted, and then some! Don't miss your chance to pick up this read today. It's free for KU subscribers, what are you waiting for?! I know this guy cannot wait for more from Bond and this series!

*****

Alright readers, that's all I have for you on the topic of Frenzy by Casey L. Bond. It was a fun, fast-paced read that I couldn't put down. I have yet to read something from Bond that I didn't love from the very first sentence. I know this guy will be anxiously awaiting the release of Frantic later this week. Be on the look out for my thoughts on it soon! Until next time, Happy Reading!

-Ethan

The Undoer (The Ransomed Souls Series #3) by Melissa J. Cunningham Cover Reveal

CLEAN TEEN PUBLISHING PROUDLY PRESENTS...

We are proud to present the official cover reveal and pre-order information for the third book in The Ransomed Souls Series by Melissa J. Cunningham. THE UNDOER is scheduled to hit shelves on May 10, 2016. Readers can pre-order their discounted copy today. If you haven't started this amazing young adult paranormal romance series, make sure to check out RELUCTANT GUARDIAN for FREE today! Fans of Cassandra Clare's LADY MIDNIGHT will love this series.

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5/10/16 (Read the full synopsis here.)

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Guarding Brecken Shaefer—a dark and dangerous rebel—is harder than it looks. Death was nothing like sixteen-year-old Alisa Callahan thought it would be. Resting on pink, fluffy clouds for eternity with her gram and best friend sounded like a dream come true. After all, enduring one torturous experience after another in her short life deserved some kind of reward, right? Unfortunately, eternal rewards aren't given out so freely when you take your own life. Required to pay the debt for her actions, Alisa must become a guardian. It sounds easy enough, but not when the boy she is forced to protect has a dangerous secret and wants absolutely nothing to do with her. Brecken Shaefer isn't any normal teenager. He has special gifts that are sure to make Alisa's afterlife miserable. When feelings develop between them, everything spins out of control. Not only must Alisa face her own demons— but to protect Brecken, she must face an evil so heinous that it threatens to destroy their souls completely. Alisa is tired of hiding from her past. When the easiest thing to do is run, can Brecken give her the strength to stay?

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Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor Book Blitz (Excerpt + Giveaway)

Nora & Kettle
Lauren Nicolle Taylor
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: February 29th 2016
Genres: Historical, Young Adult

What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason?
Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to—the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having “one drop of Japanese blood in them”—things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys.
Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Nora—the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change.
For months, they’ve lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window.
In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away.
Set in 1953, NORA AND KETTLE explores the collision of two teenagers facing extraordinary hardship. Their meeting is inevitable, devastating, and ultimately healing. Their stories, a collection of events, are each on their own harmless. But together, one after the other, they change the world.

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EXCERPT:

I snort, push my sleeves up, and lean back on my forearms. She watches me, her eyes on my bare skin, and I wonder what she’s thinking. “Dances. Really? What’s to miss?” My experience with dances was one forced event in the camps where we watched the grownups awkwardly shift in lines to scratchy music. It didn’t look very enjoyable.
She releases the button she’s been playing with and smirks. “Says someone who’s clearly never been to one.”
“How do you know that?” I say, raising an eyebrow and touching my chest, mock offended.
She laughs. It’s starlight in a jar. I blink slowly. “Oh, I can tell just by looking at you, the way you move. You,” she says, pointing at me accusingly. “Can’t dance.”
The candlelight twinkles like it’s chuckling at me. “I can dance,” I say, not sure why I’m lying to defend myself. I’ve never danced in my life.
She stands up and beckons me with her finger, and I think there’s something wrong with my heart. It’s hurting… but the pain feels good.
She looks like a pirate’s cabin boy, shirt billowing around her small waist, ill-fitting pants rolled over at her hips to stop them from falling down. She points her bare foot at me. “Prove it!”
Shit!
I cough and stand nervously. I don’t know what to do with my hands, so I put them behind my back. She giggles. Touches me. Runs her fingers lightly down my arms until she finds my hands. She grasps my wrists and I gulp as she places one on the small dip between her hips and her ribs, extending the other out like the bow of a boat. Her hand in mine.
I follow her small steps and we wind in circles, avoiding the clumps of debris, painting patterns in the dust.
I stare at my socks and her narrow bare feet, listening to the swish of them across the dirt. “You know, this is pretty weird without music,” I mutter, looking up for a moment and suddenly losing my balance.
She exhales and brings us back to equilibrium. She starts humming softly. It’s a song I’ve heard before, but I pretend it’s the first time. Her voice is sweet, cracked and croaky, but in tune as she gazes at the ground and leads us up and down the back of the tunnel.
This moment is killing me. I don’t want it, but I do. Because I know it won’t be enough and it’s all I’ll get.
The end of the song is coming. It rises and rises and then softly peters out. We look at each other, understanding that something is changing between us, and we have to decide whether to let it. Please, let it.
She sings the last few bars. “And if you sing this melody, you’ll be pretending just like me. The world is mine. It can be yours, my friend. So why don’t you pretend?”
Her voice is like the dust of a comet’s tail. Full of a thousand things I don’t understand but want to.
She stops and starts to step away. She’s so fragile. Not on the outside. On the outside, her body is strong, tougher than it should have to be. It’s inside that’s very breakable. I’m scared to touch her, but I don’t want to avoid touching her because of what she’s been through. That seems worse.
So I do it, because I want to and I don’t think she doesn’t want me to. Her breath catches as I pull her closer. I just want to press my cheek to hers, feel her skin against mine. There is no music, just the rhythm of two barely functioning hearts trying to reach each other through miles of scar tissue.
She presses her ear to my chest and listens, then she pulls back to meet my eyes, her expression a mixture of confusion and comfort. She breathes out, her lips not wanting to close but not wanting to speak. She settles on a nervous smile and puts her arms around my neck. I inhale and look up at the ceiling, counting the stars I know are up there somewhere, and then rest my cheek in her hair.
I don’t know how she is here. I don’t know when she’ll disappear.
We sway back and forth, and it feels like we might break. That we will break if we step apart from each other.
I can’t let her go.
I think I love dancing.

Author Bio:
Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology.
She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing.
She is a 2014 Kindle Book Awards Semi-finalist and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist.

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Inner Demons (Monsters Among Us #2) by Amanda Strong Release Day Launch

The Sequel You've Been Waiting For.

Readers have been waiting patiently for the sequel to the best-selling young adult novel— Hidden Monster. Reviewers boasted about the surprise twist, the romance, and the uniqueness of this paranormal romance. Now the sequel by Amanda Strong is here! This is the second book in the Monsters Among Us series. Inner Demons is scheduled to release on February 15, 2016. If you haven't started this series yet, now is the time! Hidden Monster is now FREE for a limited time!

INNER DEMONS

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HIDDEN MONSTER

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For seventeen-year-old Samantha Campbell, running back woods trails usually means freedom from her less-than-perfect life. That is, until the day a morning run turns into a living nightmare. When Samantha wakes up to find herself bound to a dirty, pinstriped mattress, she realizes she’s anything but free. With a masked abductor repeatedly injecting her arm with an unknown substance while holding her captive, Samantha tries in vain to find out what he wants, but he refuses to speak. Until the day he breaks his silence and his twisted words are worse than what she’d imagined. He promises her one day she will fall in love with him but the best part will be that she won't know who he is... until it's too late.

Finding herself freed from captivity, with her captor still at large, Samantha is on guard against everything and everyone around her. Unfortunately, walling up her heart proves difficult when eighteen-year-old Blake Knightley moves in next door. When Samantha starts experiencing strange changes within her, she realizes her captor may have left her more damaged than she originally thought. Now she must turn to Blake for help in order to unearth the truth behind the monster who started this all... or risk experiencing worse things than just falling in love.

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ABOUT AMANDA STRONG:

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Born in Dekalb, Illinois, Amanda Strong has called Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, Virginia and now New Mexico home. Amanda has been spinning tales since she was a child. Her family still remembers finding young Amanda with her bright pink glasses, hiding in random corners of the house while scribbling away in one of her many spiral-bound notebooks. You could say that some things never change since Amanda is still writing today. Amanda began her writing career when she uploaded The Awakener, her first full-length novel, on Wattpad where it received over 430,000 reads in four weeks. She was blown away and humbled by the reader support and feedback she received. Because of The Awakener's success as a non-published book, she was asked to talk on 1400 KSTAR about her story.

In September 2013 Amanda Strong signed with Clean Teen Publishing for publication of The Awakener, which is scheduled to release in late October of this year. The Awakener is the first book in an all-new young adult paranormal romance series called: The Watchers of Men.

When Amanda isn't writing, you can find her chasing her three rambunctious children around the house and spending time with her wonderful and supportive husband. On some occasions you can still find Amanda with her not-so-pink glasses, hiding in a corner reading her favorite young adult fantasy novels or working out only to blow her diet by eating ice cream.

Stardust Destiny by Nazarea Andrews Release Day Launch

 

Today we are celebrating the release for STARDUST DESTINY by Nazarea Andrews! Stardust Destiny is an adult contemporary, and erotic retelling of Helen of Troy and the epic love that started a war. It will be on sale for only 2 days so grab your copy now!

She isn't mine. But I will damn us both to keep her...

STARDUST DESTINY Blurb:

The face that launched a thousand ships... I grew up knowing my destiny. Daddy pounded it in my head, my brother repeated it every day of my life. I was the only daughter of the Orsi crime syndicate, the pretty prize that would bring peace. My one job was to marry Callum Sheehan, the vicious head of the Irish mob in Chicago. I never questioned my future–until I saw him. The man who was never meant to love her… I wasn’t going to the wedding. It’s shit that my brother does, things our father requires of the heir of the Sosa cartel. Not me. I’m the black sheep, the one Mama spoiled, and my father loves, but without the pressure of expectation. But Sheehan is too big a deal for me to blow off. And then I see her. The love that started a war… She isn’t mine. She will never be mine. I watch her fall apart when she thinks no one is watching. I watch her marry another man. I watch her bravery. And I don’t care who she belongs to or that it will start a war between our families. I will damn us both to possess her, and burn down the world to keep her. A modern erotic retelling of Helen of Troy, and the epic love that brought an empire to its knees.

Click here to add STARDUST DESTINY to Goodreads

 

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Nazarea Andrews (N to almost everyone) is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. Which means she writes everything from zombies and dystopia to contemporary love stories. When not writing, she can most often be found driving her kids to practice and burning dinner while she reads, or binging watching TV shows on Netflix. N loves chocolate, wine, and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids. She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, spoiled cat and overgrown dog. She is the author of World Without End series, Neverland Found, Edge of the Falls, and The University of Branton Series. Stop by her twitter (@NazareaAndrews) and tell her what fantastic book she should read next.

AUTHOR LINKS:

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Digital Horizon (#Hacker #3) by Sherry D. Ficklin Release Day Launch

Clean Teen Publishing is excited to announce the release of Digital Horizon, book three in Sherry D. Ficklin's #Hacker series.

Reeling from the death of her father, Farris is on the verge of losing everything. When an unexpected offer lands her a summer internship inside a secret government think tank filled with hackers, she leaps at the opportunity to get some answers. Someone has done the unthinkable, penetrating a hack-proof system and stealing vital military intel--which may have lead to her father's death. 

Finding those responsible will mean teaming up with old enemies, trusting strangers with secrets of their own, and sacrificing what little happiness she's managed to cling to, all in the name of revenge. But when the trail leads her deep into the dark web and a hacker capable of launching an attack on US soil, Farris and her team will have to go further than they thought possible to bring him to justice and avoid all out war.

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Playing With Fire (#Hacker Series Book 1)

One brilliant young hacker.

One experimental government aircraft. 

One chance to keep it all from going up in flames. 

Still recovering from her troubled past, Farris is no stranger to change. But when the military transfers her father across the country to an experimental aircraft squadron, settling in to a new life is the least of her problems. As a series of apparent computer glitches threaten the security of the fleet and the blame falls on her father, she decides to put her computer skills to use digging up the truth. Soon she's drawn into the perilous world of a hacker who is determined to ground the fleet--at any cost.

When all signs lead to someone close to her as the mastermind, Farris will have to burn more than bridges to get to the truth. She will have to risk her fragile new life to uncover the identity of the cyber criminal before they can escalate from harmless tampering... to all out murder.

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In Too Deep (#Hacker Series Book 2)

One talented hacker. One dead body. One explosive secret.

When one reckless night leads Farris Barnett to the dead body of a classmate, she’s as willing as everyone else to write it off as a suicide. That is, until cryptic messages start coming in from someone who knows the truth, and they want Ferris on the case. Putting her hacker skills to work, she begins to unravel the life of a victim who might just have been the guiltiest of them all. Her personal life in turmoil, Farris turns to the only person she can trust to help her get to the bottom of things—a friend on the verge of becoming much more. Together, they confront a killer with a secret not even she could have decoded.

The biggest bombs, the ones that do the most damage, are the ones you never see coming.

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                                                              About The Author

  Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

Connect With Sherry Here

   

Lightning Sealed (Lucent Series #2) by Lila Felix Blog Tour (Excerpt + Giveaway)

Clean Teen Publishing is proud to present Lightning Sealed, the second installment of Lila Felix's The Lucent Series.

"No matter what his words conveyed, Theo would leave me soon. It was just a matter of time."
The Fray is calling Theo. Every day, the voices get louder. Every minute, he gets pulled closer. Every second, their love is tested. Their life is a constant question of who they can trust and who they can't.
Sanctum, Theo's brother and enemy, stalks them like a predator, waiting for his chance to pounce.
Theo will leave Colby soon to do what he, as the Eidolon, was born to do. He can't deny the yearning in his heart to go, but he can't find it in his heart to leave.
Colby will be left with a decision. She can wither like the mates of Eidolon before her or she can go after the Synod, the women who murdered her grandmother, while Theo is gone.
With Theo missing and Colby desperate, Sanctum is only too eager to fill in…

Excerpt:

Ari concurred. “It was strange, wasn’t it?”

Finally, my best friend joined the party.

“But that’s not why you called me here. You called me to see if I’ve been keeping company with someone who

died over half a hundred years ago. Sorry, no corpses in my closet. Unless he’s a zombie. Double-eeew.”

I could play the ditsy blonde ‘til the cows came home.

“Did you see that episode of The Walking Dead where just the torso of that woman was crawling around? I

almost threw up.”

Ari talking about The Walking Dead making her throw up was the closest thing to the truth this room had

ever seen. She did throw up during every episode—but still was a loyal watcher.

“Damn it, Colby. You know what we are talking about! We mean Torrent.”

I loved driving people so mad that they gave up their own secret information.

“Torrent? Theo’s brother? He’s been gone since we were kids. You found him?”

I was aggravating myself at that point.

“Colby, I warn you. Any more of this mindless chatter and we will retaliate.”

“How? My mother is gone and you’ve already taken care of my grandmother. And Ari—I don’t even really like

her.”

The anger could be seen gurgling in Regina’s eyes. It made the shit bubble brown where the white used to be.

“Has he traveled to the fray yet? Has he worried you with how long he was gone? Did you think you may have

lost him forever? Did you think for once that his mission is more important than your love?”

“Wait!” Ari stood and I could see the wheels turning in her head. Every once in a while she got her act together.

“What?” I stood with her, thinking it was just another cooky distraction.

“The mate of the Eidolon falls under the jurisdiction of the Eidolon only. She doesn’t have to answer any of

your questions.”

My face flushed. She just let the bird out of the cage.

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Lightning Kissed (The Lucent Series Book 1)

Colby Evans can leap from one country to the next in a heartbeat. She can see every sunset in every time zone in the same day. She can travel across the world in a flash. She defies gravity and physics with every breath she takes. She's tested her abilities and found them limitless.

She is the lightning. She is Lucent. And nothing can stop her.

Except him.

Theodore Ramsey isn't supposed to be able to flash like Colby. The power of travel is passed on from mother to daughter in their people. Except once in every hundred generations.

Theo is the one.

He can flash like Colby. And it makes him a target to their enemies and to himself. His abilities change everything he knows about life and throws his future into an uncertain tangent. In fact, the only thing certain in his life is the love he feels for Colby.

Their love defies time and space and has been the only constant thing in their lives since childhood. But even their infallible love will be stretched to its limits.

She will risk her life to protect him. But he will risk everything to protect them all.




About the Author

Lila Felix is full of antics and stories. She refused to go to Kindergarten after the teacher made her take a nap on the first day of school. She staged her first protest in middle school. She almost flunked out of her first semester at Pepperdine University because she was enthralled with their library and frequently was locked in. Now her husband and three children have to put up with her rebel nature in  Louisiana where her days are filled with cypress trees, crawfish, and of course her books and writing. She writes about the ordinary people who fall extraordinarily in wild, true love.

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