Blog Tour: Life Unaware by Cole Gibsen

Life Unaware 
by Cole Gibsen 
Release Date: 04/28/15 
Publisher: Entangled Teen 


Synopsis: 

Regan Flay has been talking about you. 

Regan Flay is on the cusp of achieving her control-freak mother's "plan" for high school success―cheerleading, student council, the Honor Society—until her life gets turned horribly, horribly upside down. Every bitchy text. Every bitchy email. Every lie, manipulation, and insult she's ever said have been printed out and taped to all the lockers in school. 

Now Regan has gone from popular princess to total pariah. 

The only person who even speaks to her is her former best friend's hot but socially miscreant brother, Nolan Letner. Nolan thinks he knows what Regan's going through, but whatnobody knows is that Regan isn't really Little Miss Perfect. In fact, she's barely holding it together under her mom's pressure. But the consequences of Regan's fall from grace are only just beginning. Once the chain reaction starts, no one will remain untouched... 

Especially Regan Flay.

1) In the book, Regan’s—the main character’s—mother is a United States Senator. In real life my uncle is a United States Congressman. I grew up attending political functions, press releases, and campaign events. While my Uncle is nothing like Regan’s mom, I was able to use my own personal experience with politics to develop her character.

2) Regan suffers from anxiety and debilitating panic attacks. So do I. Each panic attack Regan suffers is a detailed description of my own, which is why writing those scenes was so difficult for me.

3) My biological dad took off when I was a toddler. My stepdad was verbally and emotionally abusive. Because of this I had a hard time writing “good” dads because I had no idea how they behaved. It wasn’t until I got married and had a child of my own that I was able to see my husband interact with our daughter, showing me for the first time in my life what a “good” dad looks like. Life Unaware was my first attempt at writing a “good” dad.

4) In the book Regan has an ex-racehorse. That horse is a tribute to my own ex-racehorse Dancer O’ Day that I owned for several years until my stepdad got rid of him while I was at work. I came home just in time to see the horse trailer pulling away. One of my life goals is to find out where he went and if his last years were happy.

5) I drew on my own experiences with bullying when I wrote Life Unaware. When I was a freshman, my family moved and I had to start a new school mid semester. Some cheerleader got mad because she thought her boyfriend was flirting with me. I can’t remember, but I think he’d only asked me for a pencil. Still, that was all it took to start nearly two years of torture.

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Cole Gibsen first realized she different when, in high school, she was still reading comic books while the other girls were reading fashion magazines.

It was her love of superheroes that first inspired her to pick up a pen. Her favorite things to write about are ordinary girls who find themselves in extraordinary situations.

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Release Day Blitz: Forget You (A Coldcreek Novel #4) by Jennifer Snyder

Forget You (A Coldcreek Novel #4)
by Jennifer Snyder

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Release Date: September 2nd 2014

Synopsis:

Fourth novel in the Coldcreek Companion Series.Can be read as a standalone.

Eva Bennett might be known for her candid approach and sharp tongue, but on the inside she’s still a vulnerable twenty-four year old who’s sick of kissing toads and being habitually single.

Full of comical one-liners and wielding a charming smile, Sawyer Keeton is more than meets the eye. After the news of his brother’s tragic death, however, Sawyer is pulled into a place filled with crippling emotions and pain—a place no one can seem to reach him…until the moment Eva steps into his life.

A twist of fate will bring them together and then tear them apart, forcing the two to learn there are people in life whom you cherish and pray will never forget you.

Read my review for Break You

Read my review for Control You

FORGET YOU

by Jennifer Snyder

“Hey there, pretty eyes.” The voice slipped over me in a silky way, and I instantly spun to see who was behind me. I hoped that it was someone sent directly from the love gods.

Looking up, I locked eyes with Soldier Boy from the park. “Son of a bitch.”

Really, love gods? Really?

Soldier Boy’s lips twisted into an incredibly sexy smile at my outburst. “You know, my mother never saw the irony in calling me that.”

I laughed. A look of complete shock plastered on Soldier Boy’s face at the sound. Why the hell was I laughing at him? Laughing at something he’d said constituted as flirting in the guy code dictionary.

“Pretty funny, Soldier Boy,” I commended him. Maybe he would leave it at that, and not consider my laugh as an invitation to inflate his ego and flirt relentlessly with me for the remainder of the night.

He cocked his head to the side. “You liked that, huh?”

And there it was, the cockiness I’d been waiting on. Love gods, you suck tonight.

“And that was the only thing I liked.” I moved past him, hoping he’d take the hint. “Excuse me. I need a refill.”

I didn’t have to look behind me to see if he’d followed. I could feel that he had. It was as though he had this massive presence mine enjoyed latching onto, that it desired to be fused with, because I could feel him all around me.

“What’s your name?” he asked. He was closer than I thought, his breath practically brushed against my ear when he spoke.

I pretended not to hear him. It may have been a simple question, but I still didn’t care to answer. He didn’t need to know my name, because I wasn’t interested. Once I reached the kitchen counter, I picked up the ladle lying beside a large bowl, and dipped it in for another glass of sangria.

“Not going to tell me your name?” He leaned against the counter, and grazed his eyes over every inch of my face. I could feel the burning trail his stare left in its wake.

When I still didn’t answer—this time because I was dumbfounded at how much power this guy suddenly had over me—he reached out and touched the small of my back. I knew this move; it was so he could better gain my attention. What he didn’t know, though, was that he already had my attention even without the deliberate placement of his hand. Every inch of my skin blazed to life from his touch. If he could make me feel this way from the smallest of contact, I wondered what else he could do for me tonight. Maybe the love gods weren’t being cruel; maybe they were showing me mercy in the form of a seriously sexy soldier boy.

“Eva,” I answered. Gaining control over my hand again, I finished pouring myself that second drink I so desperately needed.

“Eva? Like from the Disney movie Wall-E?”

And the moment was over. He’d opened his mouth, and crushed it to smithereens.

1) The Coldcreek Companion Series was supposed to end with Lauren’s story (Wreck You), which would have been a total of three full-length novels, when I started planning out the series. However, once I met Eva in Control You (Coldcreek Book 2) I knew she deserved her own story.

2) Eva grew up in foster care which left her with many issues as an adult, but also pushed her in the direction to become a Social Worker. This is what she’s going to college for.

3) While each novel in the Coldcreek Companion Series touches on some fairly heavy emotions—some more tragic than others—I feel as though Forget You is the most emotional out of the four. 

4) Sawyer Keeton is Eva’s love interest in Forget You. While being one of the funniest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing, he was also an active member in the National Guard which was something I knew nothing about.

5) While writing Forget You I was lucky enough to score an interview with a local active member of the National Guard. In the interview I asked everything I could think of…Including what he missed most while in basic training. His answer was (not surprisingly) privacy.

6) When I was writing the bonus short story (Forgive You) found at the end of Forget You, I cried throughout typing the final page. Also, the bonus short was a complete afterthought, something I hadn’t intended to write, but felt readers would enjoy for more closure.

Jennifer Snyder lives in North Carolina were she spends most of her time writing New Adult and Young Adult Fiction, reading, and struggling to stay on top of housework. She is a tea lover with an obsession for Post-it notes and smooth writing pens. Jennifer lives with her husband and two children, who endure listening to songs that spur inspiration on repeat and tolerate her love for all paranormal, teenage-targeted TV shows.

Head over the Jennifer Snyder's Facebook page to enter her Swag Pack Giveaway!

Dream Boy by Madelyn Rosenberg & Mary Crockett

Dream Boy
by Madelyn Rosenberg & Mary Crockett

Publisher: July 1st 2014
Release Date: Sourcebooks Fire

Rate: Enjoyed it (4,5 stars)

Synopsis:

Annabelle Manning feels like she’s doing time at her high school in Chilton, Virginia. She has her friends at her lunchtime table of nobodies. What she doesn’t have are possibilities. Or a date for Homecoming. Things get more interesting at night, when she spends time with the boy of her dreams. But the blue-eyed boy with the fairytale smile is just that—a dream. Until the Friday afternoon he walks into her chemistry class. 

One of friends suspects he’s an alien. Another is pretty sure it’s all one big case of deja vu. While Annabelle doesn’t know what to think, she’s willing to believe that the charming Martin Zirkle may just be her dream come true. But as Annabelle discovers the truth behind dreams—where they come from and what they mean—she is forced to face a dark reality she had not expected. More than just Martin has arrived in Chilton. As Annabelle learns, if dreams can come true, so can nightmares.

Dream Boy is one of those books that makes your imagination flow from the very first page and where dreams come to true. 

Annabelle is one of those girls full of imagination, something that can help a girl who's living in the middle of nowhere. Dreaming specially about a boy, the perfect one for her, might seem harmless, but imagine Annabelle's reaction when her perfect boy suddenly walks into her science class.

Having the perfect boy for a girl, the one you dream and wish for, is hard to resist and when Annabelle decides to give in to a dreamy relationship with him, dark things start to lurk and threaten to shatter her world. Because crossing the lines between the dream world and the real one left an open door for her dream boy, but also to something darker waiting to be released.

Mary and Madelyn have wrote an amazing and mind-blowing story for all those dreamy YA fans out there who are always fantasizing. In Dream Boy, readers have the opportunity to live through Annabelle and see her dreamland and the intensity of it all transcends from the pages to the reader.

However, what brings the story to another level is the intensity and chemistry between the three characters main characters, how the relationship between Annabelle and her dream boy and Annabelle and Will, her best friend, changed and developed and how both authors brought both worlds together from time to time throughout Annabelle's story. It's simply magical and something that makes the reading highly enjoyable.

Dream Boy definitely met my expectations and went beyond what I was expecting to find in its pages. Full of romance, intense, dreamy and funny, Dream Boy explores the realm of dreams and what means to have what you dream for, with its dark side lurking in every page. There's also a lot of action and a final battle that will make your emotions go crazy. 

The story completely fascinated me and the mystery and dreamy side of it all didn't prevent me to the shocking and unexpected ending. 

I highly recommend this book to all YA readers. Explore Annabelle's real and dream world and prepare to get sucked into this dreamy, suspenseful and romantic story. 

1) During high school, my fashion sense was seriously off-kilter. I once sewed closed the neck of a sweatshirt, roped a drawstring around the waist, and wore it as a pair of pants.

2) I suck at cooking. Luckily my mother-in-law is a retired home economics teacher who feels compelled to cook at lot and send us entire meals. (I'm pretty sure she worries that without her intervention, my kids might exist on peanut butter and apple slices. And I'm pretty sure she's right.) 

3) The first book Madelyn and I tried to write together was a romance between a psychic and a werewolf. 

4) My first real job after graduate school was as a museum director.

5) As a little kid, I used to make jibberish sounds, convinced that I was speaking a language. It just happened to be a language that no one (including me) knew.

6) I wail uncontrollably when I watch movies, tv shows, even commercials.

7) I played saxophone in high school. 

8) I've published two books of poetry through university and art-house presses that have won national awards. 

9) My name was supposed to be James Alan and I was supposed to be a boy. 

10) I had a dog I loved very much who was just like Spice in Dream Boy.

Mary Crockett likes turtles, licorice, and the Yankees. Madelyn Rosenberg likes cats, avocados, and the Red Sox. Luckily they both like the weirdness of dreams (and each other) enough to write novels together. The friendship has survived three moves, six kids and countless manuscript revisions. Madelyn lives just outside of Washington, D.C. Mary remains in the mountains near their hometowns in southwestern Virginia. You can find them on Twitter @marylovesbooks and @madrosenberg or their blogs at www.marycrockett.com andwww.madelynrosenberg.com.

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