Blog Tour: Ferocious by Paula Stokes

Rating:  stars

Release Date: August 15, 2017

Publisher: Tor Teen

Genre: young adult thriller

Format/Source: finished copy, from the publisher

Status: Book 2 of the Vicarious series
Links: Girl Against the Universe review

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour, which was organized & hosted by Jean Book Nerd book tours. The full tour schedule can be found HERE. Please go give my fellow tour hosts some love!

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour. This does not affect the content of my review.

Summary:

Paula Stokes returns to the world of Vicarious in this sequel, a high-action psychological thriller with a protagonist out for vengeance.

When Winter Kim finds out that her sister is dead and that she has a brother she never knew about, only two things matter―finding what’s left of her family and killing the man who destroyed her life. Her mission leads her from St. Louis to Los Angeles back to South Korea, where she grew up.

Things get increasingly dangerous once Winter arrives in Seoul. Aided by her friends Jesse and Sebastian, Winter attempts to infiltrate an international corporation to get close to her target, a nefarious businessman named Kyung. But keeping her last remaining loved ones out of the line of fire proves difficult, and when all seems to be lost, Winter must face one last devastating decision: is revenge worth sacrificing everything for? Or can she find a spark of hope in the darkness that threatens to engulf her?

Giveaway: Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

Welcome to the Girl Against the Universe seven days/seven giveaways paperback tour! I ADORE Girl Against the Universe (check out my review here), and I'm so happy to help Paula spread the word for the paperback release. Keep scrolling to learn how to enter and for the schedule for the other SIX giveaways that are happening this week!

Rating: 5 stars
Release Date: June 6, 2017
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: young adult contemporary romance
Status: standalone
Links: Girl Against the Universe review

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Maguire knows the universe is against her. No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when she's around. Like that time the roller coaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or the time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash--and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch. 

Despite what her therapist tells her, Maguire thinks it's best to hide out in her room, far away from anyone she might accidentally hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star who wants to help her break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for him is to stay away, but it turns out staying away might be harder than she thought.

Available from:

   

Paula: Hi everyone! Girl Against the Universe releases in paperback on June 6, 2017 and I’m so excited about that I decided to do an entire blog tour of giveaways to celebrate! In the story, main character Maguire creates her own list of seven challenges to help her overcome her fears. This week I have seven challenges for you, and seven chances to win a shiny GATU paperback :D These contests are international, but due to shipping costs US winners will receive signed copies sent by me and INT winners will receive their books from Wordery or The Book Depository, with signed bookplates mailed separately.

All contests will end on May 31, 2017. All winners will be contacted via Instagram, Twitter, or email as well as posted on my blog in early June. If you’re going to enter a Twitter or Instagram challenge, be sure your account is set to public during the contest period so I will be able to see your entries.

Challenge #3:

Ready to get your poetry on??

It’s haiku time! haiku are three-line Japanese poems with a syllable pattern of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. If you want to win, you’ve gotta get the pattern right—it’s harder than it looks! Not sure if you’re aware, but Mary is one of the internet’s most talented YA book-related haiku writers ;)

(Mary: this is true. Paula and I became acquainted through a Twitter party for The Art of Lainey in which I killed the competition with my rad and more-than-slightly inappropriate haiku skills.)

You can write your haiku about any of the following things, all of which play somewhat important roles in Girl Against the Universe: good luck, bad luck, tennis, dolphins, roller coasters, California burritos. Or if you’ve already GATU, you can write your haiku about anything you want related to the book.

For this contest, you’ll need to fill out the Rafflecopter for bookkeeping purposes. One entry if you post your haiku in the comments, two more entries if you post your haiku on Twitter in plain text, and an additional five entries if you post your haiku as a graphic on Twitter. Your post must include these tags so I can find it: @pstokesbooks, #GATUpaperback, #haiku.

Here’s an example I made using a free image from Canva, but I’m not nearly as skilled as Mary!

I made a #haiku about luck for @pstokesbooks #GATUpaperback blog tour contest!

If you make a visual haiku, you can claim both the 2 entries for tweeting your haiku and the 5 entries for tweeting an image without tweeting twice. Happy haiku-ing! You can enter one poem before May 31, 2017. Questions? Put them in the comments :)

Tour Schedule:

5/15: Adventures of a Book Junkie

5/16: My Bookish Itinerary

5/17: Mary Had a Little Book Blog

5/18: The Forest of Words & Pages

5/19: Xpresso Reads

5/20: In Love with Handmade

5/21: Paula Stokes

About the Author:

Paula Stokes is half writer, half RN, and totally thrilled to be part of the world of YA literature. She started out writing historical fiction under a pen name and is now branching out into other YA genres.


When she's not working (rare), she's kayaking, hiking, reading, or seeking out new adventures in faraway lands. She's petted tigers, snuggled snakes, snorkeled with stingrays, and once enjoyed the suction-cuppy feel of a baby elephant's trunk as it ate peanuts from her palm. Her future goals include diving with Great White sharks, learning Krav Maga, and writing a whole slew of novels, not necessarily in that order.

Author Links:

    

Giveaway:

One winner will receive either a signed paperback of Girl Against the Universe (US) or a paperback copy of Girl Against the Universe with a signed bookplate mailed separately (INT).

Mary Had a Little Book Blog is not responsible for lost prizes. Chances of winning are determined by number of entries. Good luck!

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Audio Adventures: Wish List

It is a sad fact that for as many books that get published, not all of them can become audiobooks. The following is a list of all the books (or authors' entire works) I wish I could listen to.

Audiobook Wish List

Paula Stokes 

You're right, Paula isn't a book, but I would like ALLLLLL of her work to be audiobooks. I ADORE The Art of Lainey and Girl Against the Universe. I have not read Vicarious yet, but I'm sure it is also fantastic. Paula's characters are so REAL. They're dynamic individually, and dynamite as an ensemble. I would love to hear her stories since I always get a different perspective when I listen to a book.

Jennifer Echols

Jennifer is a favorite of mine, but she has always been part of the quiet YA movement. Her books aren't flashy bestsellers (which is a darn shame!), but I have always connected with her stories and her characters from the very first time I saw Major Crush's cover. Something in each of Jen's books feels like it's been pulled out of the diary of my life, and how could I not want to listen to them? Plus, Jen has some seriously swoony guys and sassy gals I'd love to hear!

Jodi Meadows

I LOVED Jodi's Incarnate series; each installment kept getting better and better. So it pains me that only Incarnate has an audiobook. Conversely, I didn't LOVE The Orphan Queen duology, but I enjoyed it. I would love to see if listening and gaining new perspective would make me enjoy the story even more. The bottom line is that Jodi writes kickass fantasy, and that always makes for entertaining and engrossing audiobooks. C'mon, Harper, jump on it!

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Again, I didn't LOVE this book, but I did really like it. Plus it's a 13 on the 1-10 swoony scale. Skylar and Josh have phenomenal chemistry, and that translates well in audiobooks if you have the right narrators. With as popular as IMYT is, honestly I'm shocked it didn't get an audio.

Meg Cabot's Boy series

I have long loved Meg's teen books: Princess Diaries, Mediator, Airhead, Abandon, Avalon High, Teen Idol, etc. She's queen of teen fiction. But Meg ALSO has a ton of amazing adult books, and I got hooked on those when I picked up Boy Meets Girl probably about a decade ago. Since then, I have read the entire companion trilogy about once every two years or so (probably a little more), and I have long stalked Meg's website FAQ which has hinted for a couple years that she was working on another epistolary novel. This year when The Boy is Back was announced, I couldn't have been more excited. To celebrate, I began searching for the audiobooks of the other three so I could listen to them before number four releases in September. Imagine my disappointment, nay, horror when I realized THEY DON'T EXIST. Granted, this is probably because they are epistolary novels and instead of traditional prose narration, these stories are told through letters, notes, emails, IMs, diary entries, airplane tickets, documents, etc. But if Illuminae can make it work, SO CAN THESE.

Update: I just discovered an AUDIO CASSETTE of the first book in the series The Guy Next Door (I guess before it was Boy Next Door! Sold from Germany and the UK so maybe that's why?) on Amazon for $9.08. This shall be mine!

This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills

This book isn't out yet, but it's already one of my favorites of the year. Emma herself narrated the audiobook for her first novel First & Then, which was pretty good. I wouldn't mind if she narrated This Adventure Ends; I just want one period!

I wrote this list a couple months ago. This Adventure Ends released last week, and I haven't seen an audiobook pop up on Amazon or Audible. FINGERS CROSSED that it will happen!

The Storyspinner and The Skylighter by Becky Wallace

 

 Fantasy novels make the best audiobooks, and I'd love for Becky's Brazilian-inspired world to come to life in an audio. It's a magical, beautiful series, and I think it would sparkle and shine via audio interpretation.

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

I just don't think it's very fair that both of Emery's other books have audios, but Me and You doesn't. It was a really interesting story, and I would love to hear Paige's intense and emotional story.

Tiffany Schmidt's Once Upon a Crime Family series
 

I would love to have audiobooks (and more sequels!) for Hold Me Like a Breath and Break Me Like a Promise. They're such unique books, and I think they would be really exciting in audio. Again, these are more quiet YA, but these books are really cinematic (seriously, these should be movies!), and that's a great quality to have in an audiobook.

Do you agree with my picks? What books would you choose to have audiobooks? Let me know in the comments!

Blog Tour: Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

Rating: 5 stars

Pub Date: May 17, 2016

Publisher: Harper Teen

Genre: young adult contemporary romance, realistic fiction

Format/Source: ARC, from the author

Status: standalone

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour, which was organized & hosted by Irish Banana Tours. 

Summary:

Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.

From author Paula Stokes comes a funny and poignant novel about accepting the past, embracing the future, and learning to make your own luck.

Cover Reveal: Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes

I am SO EXCITED to share this news with you today! Paula Stokes asked me to help reveal the cover for her February 2015 release, Liars, Inc., and OF COURSE I said YES! Here’s more info about the book from Goodreads:

It all starts with one little lie…

Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell lies to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts a business providing forged permission slips and cover stories for the students of Vista Palisades High. Liars, Inc. they call it. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.

Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for—THE COVER:

Liars, Inc.
by Paula Stokes

February 2015

Harper Teen

 

And now, a word from Paula:

OMG, I’ve been flailing about the awesomeness of this cover since April. I saw it and was basically like HOLY COVER LOTTERY!! :D

I’ve talked about how Liars, Inc. is very different from The Art of Lainey, and this cover really highlights that. Liars has first-person narration, a bit of romance, and similar fast-paced dialogue to Lainey, but that’s where the major similarities end. This book is a dark mystery for fans of I Hunt Killers, Pretty Little Liars (the TV show, because I’ve never read the books), or old-school Christopher Pike novels. I hope you love it, because if it does well I might get to write a companion novel, and I’m seriously not ready to let go of these characters. Max is a little aloof and slackerish so it might take you time to warm up to him, but his girlfriend Parvati is totally badass and fun, and both of them really grow and change over the course of the novel. (You know how I love me some character development!) And no worries, this is a total standalone book, plotted and written as a solo novel.

Mary here: Did you hear that?! If Liars, Inc. does well with sales, we may get another in the series!! Pre-order links are not yet available, but I promise I'll share when they are. I'm a huge fan of Paula's, and I'm so excited to share news of her upcoming books when I can. I think this cover is super cool. It's dark and a little bit twisted, and I can't wait to see how that tone is reflected is reflected in Liars. What do you think? Do you like this cover? Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a signed, personalized ARC of Liars, Inc. Giveaway is open INT!

About the Author

Paula Stokes is half writer, half RN, and totally thrilled to be part of the world of YA literature. She started out writing historical fiction under a pen name and is now branching out into other YA genres.

When she's not working (rare), she's kayaking, hiking, reading, or seeking out new adventures in faraway lands. She's petted tigers, snuggled snakes, snorkeled with stingrays, and once enjoyed the suction-cuppy feel of a baby elephant's trunk as it ate peanuts from her palm. Her future goals include diving with Great White sharks, learning Krav Maga, and writing a whole slew of novels, not necessarily in that order.

Author Links:
   

Giveaway:

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Book Birthday Blitz: The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

Author: Paula Stokes
Release Date: May 20, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: young adult contemporary romance
Status: standalone...but there WILL be a Micah-pov novella!

Summary:

Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is gearing up to spend an epic summer with her amazing boyfriend, Jason, when he suddenly breaks up with her—no reasons, no warning, and in public no less! Lainey is more than crushed, but with help from her friend Bianca, she resolves to do whatever it takes to get Jason back.

And that’s when the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. With just one glance, they're sure they can use the book to lure Jason back into Lainey’s arms. So Lainey channels her inner warlord, recruiting spies to gather intel and persuading her coworker Micah to pose as her new boyfriend to make Jason jealous. After a few "dates", it looks like her plan is going to work! But now her relationship with Micah is starting to feel like more than just a game.

What's a girl to do when what she wants is totally different from what she needs? How do you figure out the person you're meant to be with if you're still figuring out the person you're meant to be?

Available from:

   

About the Author:

Paula Stokes is half writer, half RN, and totally thrilled to be part of the world of YA literature. She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri where she graduated from Washington University and the Goldfarb School of Nursing. When she’s not writing, she’s kayaking, hiking, reading, or seeking out new adventures in faraway lands. Paula loves interacting with readers! Find her online at www.authorpaulastokes.com or on twitter as @pstokesbooks.

Author Links:

    

Giveaway:

2 winners will receive a copy of The Art of Lainey + swag.
Giveaway is open INT. | Must be 13+ to Enter

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Many thanks to the ladies of Book Nerd Tours of  for giving me the opportunity to be part of this Nerd Blast. You ladies are awesome!