Forestium by Christopher D. Morgan book blitz with giveaway
Forestium
Christopher D. Morgan
(Portallas #1)
Publication date: February 28th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Joshua’s life is on the line, as he attempts to navigate through the magical world of Forestium to find the truth about his father. He and his companions will need to use all their cunning to stay alive and avoid the dark forces of the Goat. Will he find the magical orbs and open the Portallas, a magical gateway to other worlds, before he’s killed?
Joshua sets out to learn the truth about his father. Along the way, he finds friends, enemies, adventure, romance and himself.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iTunes
—
Q&A with Christopher D. Morgan:
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Actually, not until quite late in life. In fact, I was never very good at English when I was in school and writing was always a chore to be avoided at all costs. Being blessed with unintelligible handwriting wasn’t helpful either. Later in life, however, articulating myself through the written word became something I really started to enjoy.
Do you have a favourite place to write?
Not really, but it does have to be in a quiet environment. I’m very easily distracted. When I’m in the zone, I tend to quietly slip off to a cosy spot and get my nose down into the keyboard. I wrote Forestium: The Mirror Never Lies entirely from the family home. Often on the sofa, but sometimes on the bed or at the computer desk. I haven’t tried going to a writer’s retreat yet. Perhaps I’ll reserve that for a special occasion.
Do you have a writing routine or process that you adhere to?
Oh yes. Typically, I’ll kick off a chapter with brief one-liners that describe the events to come sequentially. There could be anywhere up to 50 or more of these for a given chapter. I do this to map out the scene or chapter and then convert each one in turn into a paragraph or two. This process is repeated until all the one-liners are gone. That’s actually the hardest part, I think. I’ll then scour what’s written repeatedly, fixing and adjusting. Of course, that last part is never truly finished – ever.
Where did you come up with the name Portallas?
Initially, it started quite literally from the word PORTAL. This quickly led to the word Portallas and the idea of having some sort of portal that would link worlds together. An interesting aside is that Portallas actually started out life as Portallus. Unfortunately, portallus.com was already taken, but portallas.com was still available, so a hasty name change took place. Despite the master plan I have in my mind, I wrote Forestium: The Mirror Never Lies deliberately to stand on its own merits as a standalone book.
Do you have a favourite amongst all your characters?
I have a real soft spot for Sarah, as do many others. She embodies many of the characteristics I’d wish for in my own daughter. She’s a strong, independent, resourceful and brilliant young woman – not to mention absolutely beautiful. Of course, she has her flaws. She tend to ramble on a bit (much to the annoyance of Andrew).
Do you have any advice for other aspiring authors?
I’m still learning as I go but there are some things that I can advise others that may wish to follow in the path: – Go for it. Really, just do it. You may be pleasantly surprised. Even if you fail, it’s better to have tried and failed than to wonder for the rest of your life whether you could have done it or not. – If you are going to publish a book on a budget, don’t scrimp on the editing or the book cover – at least, make those your primary focus. Everything else is expendable when push comes to shove. – Don’t get conned. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, as there will always be people looking to take advantage of someone with a need.
Author Bio:
Christopher Morgan is an author, blogger, IT Manager, graphics artist, businessman, volunteer and family man living in Melbourne, Australia. Much of his time is spent volunteering for his local community. He creates visual learning resources for primary school children, which are marketed through his company Bounce Learning
Kids. He is also involved in local civics and sits on various community & council committees.
Christopher was born in the UK and grew up in England’s South East. At age 20, he moved to The Netherlands, where he married Sandy, his wife of 28 years. Christopher quickly learned Dutch and the couple spent 8 years living in the far South of that country before they moved to Florida in 1996. After spending 7 years in Florida, Christopher and Sandy sold their home and spent the next 2 years backpacking around the world. Christopher has visited around 40 countries to date.
Whilst circumnavigating the globe, Christopher wrote extensively, churning out travel journals. He and Sandy settled back in the UK at the end of their world tour, where their two children were both born. In 2009, the family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where they now live.
FORESTIUM is Christopher’s debut novel and is the first in the PORTALLAS series.
GIVEAWAY!
Hosted by:
Happily Never After by Bess George
Happily Never After by Bess George
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Kelsey Brackston is trying to start her life over. She’s an Assistant District Attorney and after being shot she’s now suffering from PTSD so she’s decided to move to California to accept a job from her brother. Feeling that a fresh start and being near family she may have a chance to control the panic attacks that have taken over her life Kelsey tries for a fresh start.
Unfortunately shortly after her move Kelsey starts seeing a ghost from her past. She thinks she’s being followed by the man that had shot her only he was killed by the police. When she finds that he’s not a hallucination she enlists the help of Bode Taggert to help catch her stalker.
Happily Never After had potential to be a really great read but unfortunately it fell a bit short for me. Some books have perfectly flawed characters that you immediately fall in love with but Kelsey just didn’t live up to that in my eyes. Outside of her PTSD Kelsey often had a weird way of interacting with Bode and just generally a bit clueless on social interactions that often irritated me so I never really felt close to her as a character. She seemed to be a lot younger than what her character was said to be with her actions which has nothing to do with her anxiety.
As far as the story went I did enjoy it for a while even when not connecting to Kelsey but unfortunately it also seemed to fall a bit short of my expectations. It really didn’t take me long to see where the plot was heading and the twist seemed a bit obvious in my opinion.
Overall, 2.5 stars for this one. Fast paced but didn’t connect with the main character the way I’d expected.
I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The V Girl by Mya Robarts
The V Girl by Mya Robarts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The V Girl takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of North America where war has taken over and the soldiers are given drugs to make them stronger. Rape and sexual slavery are legal and the super soldiers often take women to do with as they wish. Lila Velez desperately wants to lose her virginity before the troops come to her town and it’s taken by force.
Lila is a romantic at heart and doesn’t want to be with just any man. She wants to be in love or at least like the man she gives herself to but has the deadline of the upcoming day the troops come in and soldiers are Lila’s worse fear. When she meets Aleksey she doesn’t trust him and somewhat fears him but soon finds herself falling for him no matter how hard she tries to stay away.
This book is a coming of age story set in such a horrible environment that most of us couldn’t possibly imagine. The idea that it’s legal for men to just take whatever they want would certainly put fear into any woman let alone a teenage girl. A completely different world from what we know for the main character to navigate made this an engaging read.
Lila is mature beyond her years because of the society she lives in. She knows about sex and has even watched others but the idea of her actually doing it herself is still a scary thing. She’s seen rape and fears above anything else that it will happen to her which is touching to imagine what that would be like. She’s still a girl to an extant but blossoming upon becoming a woman and trying to find herself all throughout the story.
Overall, a well written emotional tale in a horrific environment about a young girl trying to find herself and love. Warning of some graphic content that may bother some on this one.
I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Before the Fall begins with a group of people boarding a private plane for what was supposed to be a short hop over from Martha’s Vineyard to New York. Aboard the plane were a couple of high profile couples, one couple’s young children, the crew and one down on his luck painter. The painter, Scott Burroughs, had been invited by the wife of one of the millionaire’s since he had mentioned needing to head into the city.
The next thing Scott knew he was floating in the water only minutes after the plane had taken off. Looking around and seeing the wreckage Scott knew somehow the plane had crashed and his only hope was to swim and hope to find land. Hearing a young voice Scott finds that the young son aboard had also survived and struggles to swim the two ashore.
Before the Fall is one of those reads that I’d suggest just ignoring my rating and trying this one for yourself if it sounds interesting. I think that most will probably end up enjoying this read more than I found myself doing so as it’s not a bad book at all, it just really wasn’t my cup of tea.
After the crash the book switches back and forth between the current investigation of the plane crash and then going back and giving background into those involved. What happened for me as far as the lower rating was I just found myself not really getting engaged in the back stories and the pace seemed to drag too much for my taste. The story itself is interesting but with the slow pace I just ended up kind of bored waiting for the what happened at the end of the book.
Overall, 2.5 stars, not for me but I think a lot will enjoy this one.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Working Stiff: Casimir by Blair Babylon book blitz with giveaway
Working Stiff: Casimir
Blair Babylon
(Inheritance Trilogy, #1)
Publication date: May 17th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Here’s the problem: when Rox was hired, she told her smoking-hot boss Cash that she was married, but she’s not. Now, three years later, she’s kind of accidentally living with him, and he’s being a perfect gentleman, dang it.
Everybody in the office said that Cash was a heartbreaker, that he’d bump her and dump her, so Rox decided not to become a statistic. She went out and bought herself some rings of the finest cubic zirconia so that she could work with Cash, who was several inches over six feet tall, emerald-eyed, ripped, gorgeous, his tailored suit clinging to his athletic body, sporting a British accent, and loaded.
It had seemed like such a good plan at the time.
But now, three years later, she and Cash have become friends. They travel together for work often, and they’re the best of buddies.When Rox gets thrown out of her apartment, Cash insists that she come live with him until they can find her a place because that’s what friends do.
Now, even though everyone insists that Cash never goes after married women, something about him has changed. There are little touches, little slips, and Rox is more and more tempted to tell hunky, gorgeous Cash that she never was married.
And then he’ll take her and break her, and then he’ll walk away, and then she’ll lose her job, and she still hasn’t found a place to live.
And yet, every time her looks at her with mischief in his dark green eyes, every time they’re teasing and it somehow turns into tickling, every time she swats at him and somehow ends up in his arms, she wants so much to risk everything.
What’s a working stiff to do when she falls in love with her friend, the boss?
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iTunes / GooglePlay
—
SNEAK PEEK:
Other women looked far, far up at Cash’s brilliant, intense green eyes, the dark blond streaks in his auburn hair and his pale scruff of beard, and the hard lines of his cheekbones and jaw line.
They dropped their panties even before he took off his perfectly cut suit and silk shirt to reveal his broad, rounded shoulders, those chiseled abs like cobblestones on his flat stomach, and the deep vee of his obliques that pointed below his tight boxer-briefs.
They were lost before he whispered to them in that cultured, sexy accent and far before they saw the top-of-the-line Mercedes Maybach that he drove to his rumored enormous, manicured estate in the foothills. No one had ever been there, but everyone said that his house was huge without any evidence whatsoever.
Yep, Cash was several inches over six feet tall, emerald-eyed, ripped, gorgeous, his tailored suit clinging to his athletic body, sporting a British accent, and loaded.
Shockingly, women swooned over him.
But not Rox. Never.
Author Bio:
Blair Babylon often releases ebooks at a special release-day price of 99c.
To never miss a sale, CLICK HERE: http://smarturl.it/Babylon-Email
Blair Babylon is the nom de plume of an award-winning, USA Today-bestselling author who used to publish literary fiction. Because professional reviews of her other fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex and too much interesting plot, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy, erotic romance, plus wild, suspenseful thrillers, science fiction, and urban fantasy using the super-secret pen name Blair C. Babylon.
GIVEAWAY!
Hosted by:
Carries Book Reviews 
Recent Comments