Review: Spinner by Michael J. Bowler with Giveaway

Not every book is for every reader. I admit, I am not the right match for Spinner. That isn't to say that it doesn't have it's merits. There are a lot of readers who remain unmoved by Pride & Prejudice, despite it's sass and unconventional use of an ampersand in the title. So, rather than talk about my personal issues, because really, what good is that going to do you, a prospective reader, I'm going to tell you what there is that makes Spinner kind of awesome anyway.

First and foremost, in Spinner, Michael J Bowler embraces diversity. I am always a little disheartened that most of the YA literature out there forcuses on economically stable, healthy, cis gendered, white kids. The whole focus of Spinner is on outcasts, misfits, and a boy in a wheelchair since birth. Serioiusly, books that draw attention to diverse characters and therefore give diverse readers characters with whom they can empathize need to be given their due. Ableism in literature is so last century.

I like that Bowler writes about characters in awful situations that, although infused with the supernatural, still resemble the awful situations that some of his readers live every day, or if they don't, maybe they know someone at school who does. Bowler gives voice to their issues, like the woefully mishandled youth perpetually stuck in a dysfunctional and often abusive foster system.

Those kids are real, and their stories have merit, just in case those in a position of privilege forgot.

So this is a good book for inciting conversations on topics that usually don't arise from reading the latest paranormal YA book on the shelf, and so even though it may not be the best fit for every reader (like me), it is a good book to add to your summer reading list this July. Check out the summary and the author bio below, then hop on the giveaway too.

Spinner Book Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Alex is a “spinner.” His friends are “dummies.” Two clandestine groups of humans want his power. And an ancient evil is stalking him. If people weren’t being murdered, Alex might laugh at how his life turned into a horror movie overnight.

In a wheelchair since birth, his freakish ability has gotten him kicked out of ten foster homes since the age of four. Now saddled with a sadistic housemother who uses his spinning to heal the kids she physically abuses, Alex and his misfit group of learning disabled classmates are the only ones who can solve the mystery of his birth before more people meet a gruesome end.

They need to find out who murdered their beloved teacher, and why the hot young substitute acts like she’s flirting with them. Then there’s the mysterious medallion that seems to have unleashed something malevolent, and an ancient prophecy suggesting Alex has the power to destroy humanity.

The boys break into homes, dig up graves, elude kidnappers, fight for their lives against feral cats, and ultimately confront an evil as old as humankind. Friendships are tested, secrets uncovered, love spoken, and destiny revealed.

The kid who’s always been a loner will finally learn the value of friends, family, and loyalty.

If he survives…

Michael J. Bowler's Bio:
Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of eight novels––A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and The Knight Cycle, comprised of five books: Children of the Knight (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), Running Through A Dark Place (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America, and Spinner.

His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.

He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.

He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun than the actual movies.

He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.

He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles. He is a passionate advocate for the fair treatment of children and teens in California, something that is sorely lacking in this state.

He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed he and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.

He is currently outlining a sequel to Spinner.

His goal as a YA author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.

  

 

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Review and Giveaway: Destined for Dreams by Ginna Moran

I watch too much TV. I'll admit it. But last night, anyone who watches The Blacklist was (spoiler alert) treated to a turn of phrase we nearly never hear anymore when Red told Lizzie he was her Sin Eater. If you don't watch the show, that's fine, but let that sink in for a second. Sin Eater. One who

consumes the sins of another in order to purify them.

What a concept.

Well, of course, fresh out of Destined for Dreams by Ginna Moran, the word has a lot more depth, because she's spun this medieval concept into something complex and simultaneously both  horrifying and comforting. Although the story is told from the perspective of Hunter, a boy whose soul is trapped in the mind of Sin Eater, and Nadia, a girl who subsists on spoiling dreams by turning them into nightmares, it also focuses on Jacqueline, the Sin Eater stuck with Hunter in her mind.

To get an idea of what's going on in this one, check out the Author's blurb about Destined For Dreams: "Seventeen-year-old Nadia Petrov is an outcast in her tight-knit community of people with special abilities. Nadia must invade people’s dreams to survive. She sneaks into sleeping victims’ rooms, slips into their heads, and then turns their dreams into horrifying nightmares.
When a new girl arrives at her compound, Nadia can’t resist giving the girl a nightmare. In the dream world, Nadia discovers Hunter Sullivan, a soul trapped in the girl’s mind. Intrigued by Hunter, Nadia secretly builds a relationship with him in the dream world, and they find solace through each other.
Unable to accept a love fated for dreams, Nadia must risk losing the safety of her community to help Hunter get back to his body before he’s lost forever."

Sound like fun? It pretty much is. There are some caveats with this piece. First person, present tense can be tricky for some readers, so knowing it ahead of time is good. Also, there's a bit of Deus ex Machina at work in different moments.

What I like the most about Destined for Dreams is the complex nature of the relations between the human world and the supernatural world, and how in Destined for Dreams, the characters are living at a time when it's basically come to all out war in a way that reminds me of both Nazi Germany and also of a dystopian version of life under the Patriot Act.

Moran's characters have complex histories that drive their decisions, and due to the nature of Nadia's power, every time she goes in for more information, there is this constant dread that her victim might wake. It lends a nice urgency to every moment spent with Hunter. That's cool.

I do wish that there was a little more difference in the voices of the characters, but it's not a deal breaker for me. On the balance, it's a fun read.

     

   

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Ginna Moran is a writer living in Austin, Texas but originally from Southern California. She started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.

When she realized her love of writing was her life's passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.

Aside from Ginna's professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.

Ginna is currently hard at work on her next novel.

  

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Cover Reveal: VESSEL by Lisa T. Cresswell and Giveaway #M9BFridayReveals

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

VESSEL by Lisa T. Cresswell

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

The sun exploded on On April 18, 2112 in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen.

They had exactly nineteen minutes to decide what to do next.

They had nineteen minutes until a geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, and every satellite in their sky.

Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.

Generations after solar storms destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth, humans reverted to a middle ages-like existence, books are burned as heresy, and all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents.

Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs even if it's the last thing she wants.

Title: Vessel
Publication date: May 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Lisa T. Cresswell

Lisa, like most writers, began scribbling silly notes, stories, and poems at a very young age. Born in North Carolina, the South proved fertile ground to her imagination with its beautiful white sand beaches and red earth. In fifth grade, she wrote, directed and starred in a play "The Queen of the Nile" at school, despite the fact that she is decidedly un-Egyptian looking. Perhaps that's why she went on to become a real life archaeologist?

Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out West. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became a Great Basin archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.

Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Review and Giveaway: Bound, by M.J. Stevens

Synopsis:
‘No good deed ever goes unpunished, Mellea…’

Mellea Wendorn hasn’t exactly had a normal life. Misfortune seems to follow her, and her family, wherever she goes.
However, when Mellea stops to assist a mysterious young man suddenly her prior hardships seem trivial.

His name is Leo. He is a Successor, a child of the Guardians of Selestia.

He is royalty.
He is handsome.
And he wants Mellea completely to himself.

Unable to escape the Guardian’s laws, Mellea must learn the ways of the royals. She is convinced her life can’t get much worse. But when a timeworn Guardian enemy arises from the shadows, Mellea must make a choice that will change her destiny forever.

*

First and foremost, I didn't intend to read this in one sitting. I personally find present tense a little difficult to get into, so I thought, in the beginning, that I was going to have to take this book in small sections. That was at ten o' clock. At one o' clock I was giving my tablet the evil eye because it was over and I couldn't turn the page and find out what happens next.

Throughout Stevens' tale, she juxtaposes fast-paced action and dreamlike detail to create a world that feels believable, inhabitable, and as multi-layered as the "real" world. I like that although Bound, in some ways, seems to be a futuristic world with some advanced technologies, the tech is highly relatable and the concerns of Mellea, the young woman at the heart of the story, are the same concerns any girl who grew up in a family scraping for money with a dad who felt the aristocracy had ruined him and a mother who was, perhaps, somewhat too far immersed in her own dream world. Mellea's parents actually remind me a lot of Jeanette Walls' parents, from The Glass Castle (perspective changing nonfiction).

Bound's main characters, Mellea and Leo, are surprisingly likable. In the beginning Mellea seemed a little too likable, a little too good, and I worried that she was going to turn out to be something of a Bella Swan, but she has strong moral fiber, and that's different than being a blank canvas. Leo rather seemed like the rudest most horrid man alive, but there's a little bit of Pride & Prejudice meets Beauty & the Beast going on in Bound, so it's, ultimately, forgivable. Sometimes I read a book and characters are all good or all bad, and they fit only into one archetype or another, but M.J. Stevens sees to just be writing people for her constellation of main characters, and I enjoyed that.

There remains the Stockholm Syndrome issue to deal with in Bound. Mellea is abducted by the Guardians and told she has to unite with Leo (creepy much?), simply because he has chosen her, and is locked in their tower. Her consent to this arrangement is treated as unnecessary, and the threat of violence is ever present. This also represents a sudden escape from her poverty and a guiltless immersion into opulence. On the one hand, this is very much the stuff of dreamy childhood/teenage secret fantasy, on the other hand, it's a fundamental violation of her rights that ultimately *spoilers.* On the gripping hand, through the details, makes for an interesting tale.

All in all, it was a good light read before bed. As the first in a series, I'm sure to be in for some frustration as the subsequent titles are released and things go from no good deed being unpunished to no good deed going unpunished with heaps of heart wrenching complication.

If you'd like a chance to check it out for free, check out the great giveaway after getting to know M.J. Stevens a little better!

Happy reading, everyone.

        

AUTHOR BIO:

M.J. Stevens is a true storyteller.

For a long time, words were never her best friend. However she has always had a creative spirit and writing became the lead way that she could share her ideas with the world. Today, it is her number one passion in life.

“I wish I could say that I was one of those kids that read insane amounts of books and that’s why I was inspired to write, like a lot of authors. But I actually found the joy on people’s faces [when they talk about stories they love] more inspiring and wanted to create something of my own that will give young readers that same excited expression.”

M.J.

Author Links:

http://boundtotheguardians.com/

https://twitter.com/MelanieJStevens

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7686588.M_J_Stevens

https://www.facebook.com/boundtotheguardians?ref=hl

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Giveaway: Selina Fenech's Emotionally Charged and Artwork

Yesterday we told you about Selina Fenech's epic fantasy, Memory's Wake, and it's fantastic artwork. Today, as part of the blog tour, we've got two fun giveaways for you. First, enter using the Rafflecopter giveaway below to win an ebook copy of Selina Fenech's novella, Emotionally Charged.

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Look for the winner announcement on this post after the close of the giveaway!

Then, there is Selina' Fenech's giveaway, where you can enter to win three posters of the fabulous artwork from Memory's Wake.

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7 Day Book Launch: Dear Editor

The delightful Deborah Halverson of Dear Editor fame, is celebrating the launch week of her book WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES by having seven days of prizes on her blog.  Here's what she says:

To celebrate the publication of Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, from June 29-July 5 here on DearEditor.com, I’m featuring daily “Free First Chapter Critique” giveaways, free downloads, excerpts from the book, and profiles of the 13 amazing authors, editors, and agents who so generously contributed sidebars to the book. As the grand finale, I’m giving away a “Free Full Manuscript Edit” on the final day.

Great opportunity, right? I'd even say amazing! Be sure to check Deborah's blog all next week and enter for your chance to win great prizes. 


And as a reminder of the kick start, I'll be posting an interview with Deborah on the 29th where I'll be giving one lucky follower a free copy of the book! So stay tuned!