Blog Tour: My Merlin Series by Priya Ardis: Review, Excerpt, and Giveaway

Tour Hosted by AToMR Tours : Schedule

Title: My Boyfriend Merlin
Author: Priya Ardis
Publisher: Ink Lion Books
Publishing Date: December 1st 2011
Pages: 304
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series: My Merlin #1Source: Kindle  

  

Barnes and Noble

He was a little older than he was letting on. By a few eons…

In this modern day Arthurian, 17 year-old Boston high schooler Arriane, aka Ryan, DuLac just found out the guy she's been crushing on, hot biker Matt, is a little older than he was letting on. In fact, he is really Merlin—the Merlin, King Arthur's Merlin, the greatest wizard who ever lived. Frozen in a cave for over fifteen hundred years, he's woken for a purpose. But Ryan's not impressed. Tired of being a relationship loser, she'd rather kick his legendary behind.

Sure, the world has been crazy ever since the sword and the stone fell out of the sky like a meteor. But despite gruesome gargoyles, a deadly new world of magic and the guy driving her crazy, Ryan knows that family is everything. Will Merlin sacrifice hers to save the world? Will she be able to stop him?

I was so excited to read this book. I love Merlin and anything to do with Merlin. I loved this book. It was hook, line and sinker from the first page, the excitement started right away. The book was full on mystery, action, and romance.

It is present day and Ryan is in school when the tremor hits. It’s all over the news. A stone with a sword has fallen from the sky and landed in England. This was the last moment that Ryan’s life would ever be normal. She finds out that the myth of King Arthur, mostly true, the wizard Merlin does exist (oh and she dated him), and magic is real. Now the magic and the world is in danger and it’s all in the hands of Ryan, her friends, and her family, oh and Merlin.

I liked everything about this book. The flow was great, the writing just my style, the story action packed, the characters all amazing, the twist on the original myth was exciting.

I fell in love with Ryan and Merlin right away. Ryan is one tough cookie and has a heart of gold to go along with it. She will fight for those she loves without a second chance. As the story progressed, layers and layers of Ryan were discovered and she never ceased to amaze me. Merlin was so swoon worthy for me. He sounded really hot, and in my head he was the geeky hot, just the way I like them. He was everything that a hero from medieval times should be and lived up to my every expectation. I think it was Vane who stole the show for me. I wanted to like him, he was dark, mysterious, full of attitude, but something drew me in. The only problem... I wasn't sure if I could trust him and I was sure what his intentions for Ryan were. I think that if the trust issues wouldn't have been there, he would have been the perfect guy for me. The book was full of great characters bad and good. 

The story took unexpected turns around every corner and I really didn't know what to expect from page to page. I was always waiting for the other shoe to fall and I was never sure who to trust. 

I am all over this series and can’t wait to get the next book.

Title: Prologue; unreleasedSetup: *This prologue has never been released. Exclusive*

I got there too late.
I don’t know why I came at all.

You came for her, my insidious mind laughed at me.

Blood soaked the walls. The harsh light of the sun shone down on the townhouse’s white walls. The once pristine kitchen ran with streaks of red. The red didn’t bother me. It hadn’t bothered me since I made my first kill at the age of eleven.

I walked past the boy in the school letterjacket—the headless boy. His head tumbled off after I hacked it from his shoulder, and his youthful face, its invisible beast underneath, lay lifeless under a cheap wooden table with sunny yellow placemats.

I ran the sword against my leg. I don’t know why I bothered to clean it. Any sword I touched got dirty. This one wasn’t mine. It belonged to the dead mother and the girl on the floor. I didn’t look at the mother, another casualty in a silent war. If I’d gotten there a few minutes sooner… I clamped down the thought. It never paid to look back.

My eyes sought the girl. She looked broken, her soft golden hair splayed around her still face like a torn halo. She wasn’t though. She was strong, surprisingly so.

The way she laughed, freely yet with a hint of yearning. The way the light caressed her profile when she stared off into space, almost as if she could sense me in the shadows.

For weeks, I watched her. I shouldn’t have after I found out she wasn’t the one I sought. She wasn’t anything special. Then, why did I linger? Why did just looking at her make me want to forget every purpose and every vow? Why did I feel as if I waited over a thousand years for a chance to know her?

I gnashed my teeth. I couldn’t get distracted. My brother needed me although he’d never admit it. I’d failed him too many times. I was a wizard and I had a destiny to bend.

I laid the sword beside her. In a small burst of magic, I melded the fabric of her torn shirt. I touched her pink lips, just one touch. A bit of blood smeared where my finger pressed, marking her. She would never even know I was here. She wasn’t mine. For a moment, though, I wanted her to be.

But then, I was selfish that way.

My Merlin Awakening (My Merlin #2) by Priya Ardis

 
Barnes and Noble

  

        

He was the right one, the chosen one, but was he meant for her?

The end of the world. The day of reckoning. The final battle. In the last chapter of the My Merlin Series, it is a time of great strife for Arriane (aka Ryan) and Merlin (aka Matt) as they struggle to stem the flood of destruction unleashed upon the world. Their only hope rests in the one object that can restore their greatest ally: the Healing Cup.

With every scrap of life hanging in the balance, Ryan must convince both friends and enemies that the key to survival rests in the plans of a sword-toting girl of only eighteen. She must reconcile a fifteen-hundred-year rivalry between two brothers, and be ruthless enough to break a heart—and a life—in the process. And at some point, she really needs to get herself to Prom.

Every My Merlin (My Merlin #3) by Priya Ardis   

           

Barnes and Noble

        
He was the right one, the fated one, but was he right for her?

The end of the world. The day of reckoning. The final battle.

In the last chapter of the My Merlin Series, it is a time of great strife for Arriane (aka Ryan) and Merlin (aka Matt) as they struggle to stem the flood of destruction unleashed upon the world. Their only hope rests in the one object that can restore their greatest ally: the Healing Cup.

With every scrap of life hanging in the balance, Ryan must convince both friends and enemies that the key to survival rests in the plans of a sword-toting girl of only eighteen. She must reconcile a fifteen-hundred-year rivalry between two brothers, and be ruthless enough to break a heart—and a life—in the process. And at some point, she really needs to get herself to Prom.

Priya Ardis loves books of all kinds—but especially the gooey ones that make your nose leak and let your latte go cold. She started her first book at sixteen, writing in notebooks on long train rides during a hot summer vacation in India. Her favorite Arthurian piece is the poem The Lady of Shalott by Lord Alfred Tennyson. A hopeless romantic, she's a longtime member of the Romance Writer's of America. When not living in her characters' world, she might be found at the local coffee shop—her nose buried in a book.

Social Media:  Website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Promo Blitz: 6 Seconds of Life by Tonya Fitzharris

6 Seconds of Life by Tonya Fitzharris

September 1st 2012

Genre: YA Adult/New Adult

 

Barnes and Noble/Smashwords

  

Maura has just jumped.

Now she has precisely six seconds until she hits the water below her—just six more seconds until she is finally freed from her mundane and aimless existence. Freed of all of the regrets and disappointments that have haunted her throughout her nineteen years.

She just needs to be free.

But as she falls, the most pivotal points of her life start to replay like a movie in her head: her family falling apart, her first love, her first heartbreak, her first true friends, and her first betrayal. As she remembers these moments that brought her to this point, will she feel a sense of peace? Or will her death be her greatest regret?

“I guess I’ll just know it when that time finally comes along,” he whispers. His lips graze my cheek and we stop waltzing. His hand comes up and brushes my flyaway bangs behind my ear, the tips of his fingers running along the back of my earlobe. An overpowering wave of desire and anticipation wells up from my stomach, causing my internal hurricane to erupt into a monsoon. I let his eyes lock with mine, restraining me like a pair of handcuffs. They inspect me, almost like they’re looking right through my skin and into everything that’s underneath, begging to learn anything and everything about me. I don’t move. Maybe if I can manage to stay totally still, this moment might last forever. His face moves closer. My chest is caving in on itself. 

Is this it?

Tonya Fitzharris is a writer, reader, blogger, mediocre cook, photographer, runner, Florida native, and cat lover. She used to be a Middle School English Teacher, but now she's trying out the whole novel writing thing. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and her Belgian cat named Waffles.

Social Media:

WEBSITE /TWITTER @tonyafitzharris/FACEBOOK

Book Blast: (Just Junco #1) Clutch by J.A. Huss

Hosted by SupaGurl Tours

Clutch (I am Just Junco #1) by J.A. Huss

October 1st 2012

Genre: Sci-Fi

 

        

In 2152 the avian race is on Earth looking for something stolen from them decades ago – their genetics. At the center of the search lies the Rural Republic; a small backwards farming country with high hopes of military domination and a penchant for illegal bioengineering.


19 year old Junco Coot is the daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. She’s the most foul-mouthed, wildly unpredictable and ruthless sniper the Rural Republic has ever trained. But when her father’s death sparks a trip into forbidden places, she triggers events that will change everything she knows to be true.

As an elite avian military officer, Tier’s mission is to destroy the bioengineering projects, kill Commander Coot’s daughter, and return home immediately. There’s just one problem. Junco isn’t who she claims to be.With no one to trust, not even herself, Junco must confront the secrets of her past and accept her place in the future, or risk losing herself completely.

"I think we should stick together, Junco. In fact I was thinking I can help get ya back to safety. Ya know, help ya get the Goat back up on the road. Even though yer healed, yer still pretty–" He hesitates.

"I’m pretty?" I ask. He laughs a little and shakes his head, which pisses me off for some reason. "No, I was going to say pretty weak, ya know. From yesterday’s crash. But then I wondered if ya would take that as an insult as well."
I roll my eyes and try to push past him to get the winch hooked up to a tree, but he leans his hands on either side of the Goat, essentially boxing me in. I shoot him a nasty look and he drops his hands to let me through."Thanks for all your help," I call back to him, "but I’m going to take it from here. And I won’t report you, so don’t worry about that. Just get hell out of the RR before anyone else sees you." I turn to see how he’s taking the news but he’s not there. When I turn back he’s in front of me again. 

He shakes his head at me.I shake mine back and raise my eyebrows. 

"You’ll refuse my help?""Look," I huff, "you have those people tracking you and neither of us is supposed to be out here in the first place, so let’s just cut our losses and move on. Separately." He looks down to the tech that is still in his hand. "They can’t see anything here. Some sort of shield." 

"Right. That’s called a defense system. The deeper you go into the Stag, the thicker the shields. So why don’t you just fly over to the Mountain Republic where they probably can track you?"

He lifts the device to illustrate his point. "In case ya haven’t figured it out yet, these people aren’t my ride home."

"So why are they tracking you?" His eyes twinkle and I know what’s coming and push past him at a full run. He’s on me before I can take more than half a dozen strides and pulls on my shirt until I slip in the mud and go down hard on my back.

"Stop!" I scream, but instead of stopping he pins my arms down and sits on top of me as I wriggle and kick to try and get him off. His legs twine around mine, essentially cutting off any thoughts of getting him off me that way. Then his eyes are glowing again and his lips are touching my cheek, whispering for me to settle and be calm.To my surprise, I do settle. I can’t help it. I realize too late that the soft words brushing past the sensitive skin on my cheek are controlling me. I can feel the sound waves trickling into my ear canal, making their way to the nerve pathways that control my muscles, and I bring my shoulders up to try and push his face away. His lips remain next to my ear and I am just about to fully give in when the tech device, forgotten and left on the ground during our struggle, sounds off an alarm. He loses his concentration and the words stop for half a moment, but that’s all I need. 
I take my opportunity and flip myself over so that I’m on my belly. This takes him by surprise and for a split-second he is off balance. I flip back around and use my right arm to knock him in the windpipe as my body turns. He goes reeling off of me and I’m up and running down into the little creek. 

A boot goes flying just past my head, but I don’t stop and wonder at this weird turn of events. I run as hard as I can, over the opposite bank, out of the small grove of cottonwoods, and into the tall flowing prairie grass. I’m short, so the leftover husks slap me in the face as I run, blurring my vision. The wings descend and he’s swooping down upon me. I look up to see talons where his boots were just a few minutes ago and they latch onto my shoulders, puncturing my skin and making me scream. His grip tightens and clutches onto my shoulders making me fall. I roll as I land and pop back up, booking it again without missing a beat.One second I’m hauling ass towards the open prairie, the next he’s on the ground in front of me and we’re on a collision path. I plan my move and let him get to within a few strides of me and then I flip into the air and land on the other side of him. He misses a step and I take advantage of it, turn and deliver a hook kick to his jaw. His head snaps to the side and he stumbles over sideways a little. 
I run hard for a few seconds and don’t look back. Off in the distance I hear the roar of a hovercopter and a few seconds later I feel the effects of the prairie grass wind tunnel it creates from the blades, but still I push my way through the now wildly swaying wheat until I come upon the alien again. His lip is bleeding and his jaw is slightly red from my kick. I stop in my tracks, bent over and panting hard. 
He’s not even out of breath.
"I’m not the enemy, Junco," he screams above the roar, "and if you know what’s good for ya, you’ll run like hell because if those guys from the Mountain Republic get you, you’ll end up in the same messed-up place as your father."
He flies off, disappearing in the tallgrass before I can even string together a sentence.But his words stay with me. Dead like my father is not something I want to be so I follow his advice. I run until the MR soldiers in the hovercopter blast me with a plasma bolt and I fall to the ground unconscious.

J. A. Huss never took a creative writing class in her life. Some would say it shows. Others might cut her some slack. She did however, get educated and graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Equine Science. She had grand dreams of getting a Ph.D. but while she loves science, she hated academia and settled for a M.S. in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida.

She’s always packing heat and she is owned by two donkeys, five dogs, more chickens and ducks than she can count, and of course, the real filthy animals, her kids. The I Am Just Junco series was born after falling in love with the ugliest part of Colorado and the Rural Republic is based on the area of the state she currently resides in, minus the mutants, of course.Social Media : Website/Blog/Facebook

Mailbox Monday #34 and Stacking the Shelves #9

In My Mailbox is a weekly hosted by The Story Siren. and Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

I had a very busy week and a very fun Saturday. I was able to see all the authors that were at the Austin Teen Book Festival, I bought some new books, had old and new books signed, and was able to get 33 signatures in my Author Autograph book. Unfortunately, I was so excited, I forgot my camera but I do have pictures of my autographs. 

First, the book I received this week.... 

For Review and Blog Tour: 

Bought and Free: 

Audio Bought: 

Library: 

Bought at the Austin Teen Book Festival: 

My daughter and I had a lot of fun Saturday at the book festival. Neal Shusterman had to cancel so Libba Bray did the opening note and she was just wonderful. She made me laugh, made me cry, gave some great encouragement, and then had some fun with dancing and  80's music. Oh and she started the event with a lightsaber show. It was pretty awesome! 

The panels were great. I was able to catch some of these.... 

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads – Marissa Meyer (Cinder), Rachel Cohn (Beta), Jeff Hirsch (Magisterium), Dan Krokos (False Memory), and moderator Greg Leitich Smith (Chronal Engine)

What Would You Do For Love? – Ally Condie (Reached), Kresley Cole (Poison Princess), Jessica Shirvington (Entice), Tamara Ireland Stone (Time Between Us), Jessica Khoury (Origins), and moderator
Tracy Deebs (Temptest Unleashed)

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore – Libba Bray (The Diviners), Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Redemption),Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Rae Carson (The Crown of Embers), and moderator Sarah Rees Brennan (Unspoken)

I really enjoyed them all but the authors that really stood out to me were.... Dan Krokos, Jessica Shirvington,  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Rae Carson, Leigh Bardugo, Tracy Deebs and Sarah Rees Brennan. They were very entertaining and kept me laughing. We'ere Not in Kansas Anymore was the panel that really stood out for me. 

The best looking author prize goes to Scot Spear.... He is very yummy and there were murmurs about his hotness all around the room. 

I wish I could have gone to them all, but 3 were schedule to happen at the same time. The last hour of the panels I stood in line for Ally Carter. 

The lines weren't too bad for the most part. Much better than last year. The lines we waited in the longest were for Ally Carter, Ally Condie, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, and Sara Rees Brennan. I was estatic that I was able to get to see every author.  

I really wished I was able to see more of the bloggers that were there. I did meet Bookgoonie though, she was in line right in front of my hubby for Ally Condie. 

I was able to get these books signed for future giveaways... 

Here are some pictures of my autograph book: