Of Fire and Roses Book Tour and Giveaway

Of Fire and Roses

Danielle Belwater

Blurb: Nathaniel West’s mother is dead, his father a lost cause. Anger has become a way of life, until he meets and falls in love with Cora Ewell. Only Cora has a secret, one that could kill them both.

An age old dark magic resurfaces and it becomes a race against time for Cora and Nate to find the long buried secrets to saving everyone they love and each other.

After a near fatal accident leaves Nate in limbo, he must find a way to get through to Cora before time runs out and she is forced into life eternal with the evil wizard, Elias Stafford.

Excerpt 3:  I came to stand on the branch that I would jump from. Holding on to the branch above me, I edged my way out to the dangled rope. With one hand, I grabbed the rope and pulled it toward me. I inched back a few steps to give myself a decent amount of swing room. The rope was fraying, coarse, and rough in my hands. I could hear loud shouts and whoops of encouragement from below, but I blocked them out, shut my eyes…then jumped.

Free…Swinging out in the air, I forgot everything in that brief moment of peace. Letting go of the thick rope for that split second of suspension, I felt like I was flying. Then, I was no longer flying. I was slamming—slamming into the cold, glassy lake. The impact shattered every cell in my body as the pain of hitting a sheet of solid water turned me to jelly. Then I was under. I opened my eyes. Murky darkness surrounded me.

I don’t know how far I was submerged but I could see rays of sunlight piercing through the surface into the depths. I waited for the moment my feet would hit the bottom so I could push off and resurface. Feeling the sludgy sand between my toes, I closed my eyes again and prepared to launch myself skyward. I don’t know why, but my feet were stuck. Something cold and slimy had wrapped itself around my left leg, tendrils crawling like ants around my calf. All the air in my chest escaped in a single cloud of air bubbles making a frenzied dash for the surface.

 Kicking and flapping about, I tried to dislodge whatever had caught my foot. I needed air but every time I opened my mouth it filled with the ceaseless rush of muddy water.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic! I crunched myself into a ball and stretched my arm down in a vain attempt to remove whatever it was that had the vice grip on my ankle. I wrapped my hand around the offending root that held me. Terror stopped my heart and froze my blood, and my eyes shot open. Clamped around my leg was a grizzly, white-knuckled hand extending out of the lake floor. I struggled and fought to pry the digits loose. It was no use, my ankle was locked fast, and I had nothing left.

Given the go-ahead, the murky liquid hungrily searched for any way to penetrate and take over my body. A thousand knives pierced through me as I battled for every last scrap of oxygen. My arms and legs spasmed once, then twice, then stopped fighting and went deathly still. An ethereal calmness took over. I knew right then I was dying. I thought of Cora, imagining her warmth and fire, and I found peace. I pictured her arms wrapped around me, holding me tight forever and never letting go.

Author Bio:  Danielle Belwater adores the concept of true love and thoroughly believes everyone has their Prince Charming or Snow White out there somewhere, even if they have to fight demons, ghosts, and wizards to find it.

Danielle has been having a love affair with words since she was young and in primary school, writing some rather imaginative tales. This love has followed her into adulthood.

She lives in rural South Australia with her husband, young daughters and way too many animals to mention. She spends most of her time dreaming up characters, stories, ghostly tales, and watching Firefly re-runs.  She also cooks the odd meal for her family to avoid them looking like skeletons at official author functions!        
Danielle is passionate about reading and her interests include pretty much anything with words from rolling four volume epics to the daily newspaper.

CONTACTS & SOCIAL MEDIA Web: http://www.daniellebelwater.com E: daniellebelwater@gmail.com Blog: http://daniellebelwater.blogspot.com.au Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/DanielleBelwaterAuthor Twitter: @DSevenwaters Wattpad: http://wattpad.com/DanielleBelwater Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/DBelwater/

Hidden Virtual Book Tour

HIDDEN

By

M. Lathan

BLURB:  

Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.

That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.

Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.

Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.

Let’s hope she can stay hidden.

A far second to oranges, the song I sang in the shower every night had a way of soothing me. More than anything, it made me tired enough to fall asleep. With Whitney gone, I didn’t have to whisper it.

The stars are out,

It’s time for bed.

Now close your eyes,

And rest your head.

May angels shield you with their wings,

As you dream your little angel dreams.

I didn’t recall composing that song, but apparently, I used to think I was good and perfect like the angels. I knew better now.

I stepped out of the shower and tugged a brush through my unruly brown tangles. I stared into the mirror over the sink as I started the song again. My skin screamed winter. I should be a warmer tan; I looked less creepy in the summer. Maybe that was why the girls had been digging into me so hard. I looked rather witchy. The unease that made them mock me was probably their souls warning them, urging them to notice I was different and dangerous.

At my worst, it feels like the fire that could easily shoot from my palm is raging inside of me. My heart picks up, more than when I’m scared. It pounds, I can’t hear. My blood dances, taunting me, begging me to hurt whoever’s hurt me. And I know that I can. I feel that I can.

But I don’t. I breathe and pray and let the magic cool.

Review:

Hidden is a classic girl is bullied and comes out strong story. Leah is a witch surrounded by catty girls in a boarding school. She is an orphan in a world that has taken over all forms of magical creatures. She has been forced to hide what she is and suffers from self loathing and depression. Depression is rage turned inward and that is very real in this case. She has been made to feel that the magical parts of her are from the devil. 

The thing that struck me first about this book was the dark bubbling feeling that crept up from Leah. She really believes she is evil and tries to keep her inner demons, so to speak, at bay, even when the horrid girls taunt and tease her to the point of tears. (I think I would have zotted them myself.) When she is at a breaking point and about to flame on and turn them into a pile of ash, a witch steps in and whisks her away into an epic story full of magic, wonder and mystery.

The paranormal elements were enjoyable and I really felt akin to Leah. It is hard being different and knowing that somewhere at the root of what you are is wrong in everyone else's eyes. Being a teen misfit, I can totally get her want to be invisible and the impotent rage that smacks of a Carrie meltdown in the making. (I rooted for Carrie too.) 

The story development was a little slow and I had to re-read a few parts that were a little sudden, but all in all I enjoyed the book and thought it was a good start to a series with a lot of potential. 

3/5

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.  

Links

Website: mlathan.com

Twitter: @hiddenseries

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hiddenseries/

Buy links: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=B00A6301BO