Interview with Bree Barton for Tears of Frost

Tears of Frost (Heart of Thorns #2)

by Bree Barton
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: November 5th 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Synopsis:

The electric second book in the Heart of Thorns trilogy explores the effects of power in a dark magical kingdom—and the fierce courage it takes to claim your body as your own.

Mia Rose is back from the dead. Her memories are hazy, her body numb—but she won’t stop searching. Her only hope to save the boy she loves and the sister who destroyed her is to find the mother she can never forgive. Pilar is on a hunt of her own. Betrayed by her mother, and plagued by a painful secret, she’s determined to seek out the only person who can exact revenge. All goes according to plan… until she collides with Prince Quin, the boy whose sister she killed.

As Mia, Pilar, and Quin forge dangerous new alliances, they are bewitched by the snow kingdom’s promise of freedom and opportunity. But with the winter solstice drawing near, they must confront the truth beneath the glimmering ice, as lines between friend, foe, and lover vanish like snowflakes on a flame.

Can you briefly describe TEARS OF FROST and its characters?

Mia Rose and Pilar d’Aqila—the girl who tried to kill her—are on a collision course in the snow kingdom. Mia is looking for her mother. Pilar is looking for her father. They’re both harboring dark secrets that could destroy them. Meanwhile Quin has also escaped the river kingdom on a mission of his own. 

They only have twenty-eight days before the Illuminations, the Jyöltide festival in which fyre ice flickers in the night sky… and all truths come to light. The question is, will Mia, Quin, and Pilar work together to confront the darkness? Or will their secrets tear them apart?

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?

I really fell in love with Pilar as I wrote this book. She’s so different than Mia—she thinks and speaks and acts differently, and the world she knows is not the same world Mia and Quin inhabit. Pilar rough-and-tumbled her way into my heart, jostled Mia out of the way, and claimed my new favourite spot.

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?

I clawed and fought and wept my way to this story. It was not easy. When I was writing the first draft, my little sister was raped—a fact she’s given me permission to share, because she’d like our culture to be able to talk more openly about rape. When I was revising, I was sexually assaulted. For more than twenty years, I have struggled with depression, which often feels like being stripped of physical sensation and emotional aliveness. In other words: being trapped in a dark box. All of these things poured out of me and into the book. I did my best to shape them as honestly and sensitively as I could. It also means this book is intensely personal—and will of course hurt more when people tear it apart. 

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?

“Fire Drills” by Dessa. This is such a powerful song. It says so much, so perfectly, so painfully. Dessa is a queen.

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

Why not choose actors, right? There are so many good ones!

Mia: Sophie Turner

Quin: Timothée Chalamet 

Pilar: Camila Mendes 

Zai: Manny Jacinto

Angelyne: Dakota Fanning

Ville: Lucas Hedges

Nell: Zendaya

Fall is here, and we love to find a cosy place to read our favourite books. What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

TEARS OF FROST is a great book for the holidays... assuming you like your holidays with a dose of dark and twisty. The mythology of the snow kingdom—the Seven Souls of Jyöl that form the epistolary backbone of the novel—was heavily inspired by my trip to Iceland. I think the absolute best place to read ToF would be by a crackling fire in the coastal town of Vik, hugging a toasty cup of Jyöltide cinnamon cocoa beneath the northern lights. Barring that: in a bookstore nook with mistletoe and some candles that hopefully don’t float. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish TEARS OF FROST?

MIRAGE, DAMSEL, THESE REBEL WAVES—so many amazing books today are pushing the boundaries of what fantasy can be. I also just finished (and fell in love with) ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield. Treat yourself to the audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson. The variety of British accents is dazzling; she brings all the characters so beautifully to life. 

What’s next for you?

I’m currently hard at work on book 3 of the trilogy (I know the title but can’t reveal it just yet!). There are glass cities, warm sandy beaches with swaying fish trees, an island with mystical allure… and a grave cost on the other side.

Bree Barton is the author of Heart of Thorns (KT/HarperCollins 2018), the first in a series of fierce feminist fantasy novels. Her books have been published in seven countries and four languages. When she’s not crafting a story, Bree teaches dance and writing to teen girls. You can find her on Instagram @SpeakBreely. She lives in Los Angeles but dreams of the northern lights.

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Blog Tour: Love Me Never (Lovely Vicious #1) by Sara Wolf

Love Me Never (Lovely Vicious #1)

by Sara Wolf

Publisher: Entangled: Teen 

Release Date: April 5th 2016

Synopsis:

Previously published as Lovely Vicious, this fully revised and updated edition is full of romance, intrigue, and laugh-out-loud moments.

Don’t love your enemy. Declare war on him.

Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she’s lost eighty-five pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to Buttcrack-of-Nowhere, Ohio, to help her mom escape a bad relationship.

All the girls in her new school want one thing—Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack Hunter's never gone out with anyone. Sure, people have seen him downtown with beautiful women, but he's never given high school girls the time of day. Until Isis punches him in the face.

Jack’s met his match. Suddenly everything is a game.

The goal: Make the other beg for mercy.

The game board: East Summit High.

The reward: Something neither of them expected.

What would Isis do? by Sara Wolf

Thanks for having me! I’m Sara Wolf, and I’m super excited to talk to you all about my favorite character; ISIS! She’s from my new book, LOVE ME NEVER, and the topic today is what would she do if her heart was broken, which is an awesome subject. 

I’m not exaggerating here when I say Isis is the master of heartbreak. She’s a wizard, a maven, the absolute president of Heartbreaksville. Her heartbreak is a major theme of LOVE ME NEVER, and the whole book in general, so I’m psyched to talk about it. 

Isis was pretty young when her heart was broken – newly fourteen. The urge to fit in is so strong during that age, and the urge for love and affection as a human is pretty constant for most people. So Isis was looking for both, especially since her parents were in the middle of an ugly divorce and she hadn’t had much affection in a while. Isis turned to Will Cavanaugh, a boy she had a crush on, blindly doing everything she could to make herself attractive to him – by doing everything he said, going everywhere he went, trying hard to be friends with his friends. When he broke her heart and betrayed her, she closed up pretty hard. She was disgusted with who she’d become for him, so she changed everything about herself; going so far as to lose a bunch of weight and changing her hairstyle. She lashed out pretty hard at this time towards the people who were friends with him, starting fights at her school. These things aren’t necessarily healthy, but when you get your heartbroken you don’t tend to think clearly, or do things that are good for you. Her self-worth was shattered completely. 

There’s a lot of stages of heartbreak, and once Isis’s anger phase faded a little, she got into the mourning phase. She built strong walls of sarcasm and wit around herself, decorating it with a deep distrust for men, or anyone who tried to get close to her or compliment her. She’s so disgusted with the girl she used to be, the girl who was used and abused, that she genuinely can’t believe the good things people say about her, much to Jack’s frustration. In LOVE ME NEVER, she’s still a long way off from the acceptance stage of heartbreak, but she’s taking small baby steps using her own willpower and getting helped along the path by Jack, who knows similar heartbreak. 

I wrote LOVE ME NEVER knowing Isis was damaged and in denial, but I didn’t know just how much until the story unfolded. Heartbreak is the worst, and the recovery can take months or even years, and only with the help of a lot of people who love us no matter how ugly our pain. Good friends and good family can help you so much, and Isis makes a little bit of both in LOVE ME NEVER. Isis definitely learns that only when our hearts are mended can we open them up again to other people. 

“Who are you waiting for?” Knife Kid asks.

“That obvious, huh?”

“Jack, then. Screaming at him wasn’t enough?”

“He was the one who put the pictures of me all over school. Hell no, screaming isn’t enough.”

Knife Kid nods. “I saw the pictures. I had fun slashing them with my protractor. Nobody should be made fun of like that, I think.”

I don’t know whether to smile at how sweet he sounds or become extremely concerned at how creepy he sounds. I settle for a little of both just as Jack comes in. He walks right by and settles in his desk behind me. I turn and watch him take off his backpack.

“Hi.” I wave.

It takes him a moment to recognize me. Or a million. He focuses his gaze on me, then looks boredly to the window. He puts his chin in his hand, studies a pigeon in a tree with utmost intensity, and then all at once his eyes go wide. He swivels his head slowly back to me.

“You,” he murmurs.  

“Me!” I chirp.     

“What the hell are you doing in that?” he asks, eyes sweeping down to my chest, my legs, and up again.

“Damage control.” I smile. “Do you like it?”

“I’ve seen pigs dressed better.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that, considering you see one in the mirror every morning.”

Don't miss anything of the LOVE ME NEVER blog tour! Click on the banner below to see the tour schedule.

Sara Wolf is a twenty-something author who adores baking, screaming at her cats, and screaming at herself while she types hilarious things. When she was a kid, she was too busy eating dirt to write her first terrible book. Twenty years later, she picked up a keyboard and started mashing her fists on it and created the monster known as the Lovely Vicious series. She lives in San Diego with two cats, a crippling-yet-refreshing sense of self-doubt, and not enough fruit tarts ever.

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Assassin's Heart (Assassin's Heart #1) by Sarah Ahiers

Assassin's Heart (Assassin's Heart #1)
by Sarah Ahiers
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 2nd 2016
Rate: Enjoyed it (4 stars)

Synopsis:

In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down.

Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay.

With shades of The Godfather and Romeo and Juliet, this richly imagined fantasy from debut author Sarah Ahiers is a story of love, lies, and the ultimate vengeance.

Lately some amazing YA stories have been published and I am always looking for novels that blow my mind just like An Ember in The Ashes or Red Queen did, for example. Assassin's Heart is an enjoyable YA read in a world where murders are permitted as long as one of the nine assassins' families commits them. I can say that I was not disappointed at all by this novel. In fact, I had a great time while reading it, always not knowing what the author had planned for her characters.

I have to admit that the premise made me doubt a bit. I didn't know if I would enjoy the story due to the whole thing of the nine rival families murdering people as a job and that everything was pretty normal in the kingdom of Lovero. I found it a bit strange, to be completely honest, because I wouldn't go out of my house if I lived there. But when the story was presented to me in the first chapters and you accept the fact that we're dealing with assassins who murder people and who want to murder each other everything has a new perspective and you start truly enjoying the story.

The fact that Sarah Ahiers knew how to built her kingdom, not trying to evoke any other kingdoms that we already know, and trying to be original, but at the same time reminding us to other stories such as Romeo and Juliet but more murderous, was what made this story so enjoyable in the first place. Plus, her writing is also a bonus.

I did not give my five gorjuss dolls to this book mainly because I felt a bit disconnected from the story from time to time. Like there are some parts in the story where it catches the reader's interest and it's nearly impossible to even take a breath and some parts where you are just going through the motions and trying to get back to those mind-blowing scenes I mentioned before. In spite of this, the story was a good one and Sarah Ahiers had a great story to told us. I am just beyond thankful that HaperTeen let me read it.

And... I would recommend this book? YES! Why not? To me, it felt that it was on the line of other YA books published in 2015 that blowed our minds and even though the story is not quite on the same level as those other books, it's nearly there. So if you love a good story about love, assassins, betrayal and crimes, this is your kind of story. I will definitely keep an eye on the next book!

Follow the ROCKSTAR BOOK TOURS blog tour and don't miss a thing!

Week One:

1/25/2016- Adventures of a Book Junkie- Interview

1/26/2016- Brittany's Book Rambles- Review

1/27/2016- Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews- Guest Post

1/28/2016- The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club- Review

1/29/2016- The Young Folks- Interview

Week Two:

2/1/2016- Cover2Cover- Review

2/2/2016- YaReads- Guest Post

2/3/2016- Dark Faerie Tales- Review

2/4/2016- Storybook Slayers- Interview

2/5/2016- Fiction Fare- Review

Sarah Ahiers is working towards an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and lives in Minnesota with three dogs and a house full of critters. She has a collection of steampunk hats and when she’s not writing she fills her time with good games, good food, good friends and good family.

Sarah writes Young Adult and Middle Grade novels and occasionally dabbles in Picture Books. Fantasy is her favorite genre, though she sometimes can be found playing around with Horror and other things that go bump in the night.

Sarah’s debut novel, ASSASSIN’S HEART (HarperTeen, February 2nd, 2016) is a Young Adult Fantasy. In the Kingdom of Lovero, where families of assassins lawfully kill people for the right price, seventeen-year-old Oleander “Lea” Saldana sets out on a path of vengeance against the most powerful assassin family of all.

She is represented by Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary & Media.

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