Liz Kessler Blog Tour: If I had a Time Machine...

Hello folks! To celebrate the release of A Year Without Autumn, today I'm having the wonderful Liz Kessler on the blog! Ever wondered what you'll do if you were somehow in possession of a Time Machine? Who am I kidding, of course you did! I think we all have gone through that phase in our childhood, haven't we?

Check out what Liz'll do below! Welcome Liz!

My new book, A Year Without Autumn, is all about a girl who accidentally slips
forward in time. Everyone except her is a year older then they were the day
before. She has no idea how she got there – and even worse than that, she
discovers that some terrible things have happened in the year that she’s lost.

Jenni has to try to figure out a way to go back in time and change what happened
so that her life – and her best friend’s life – can get back on track without the
disaster that is fated to happen.

So this got me thinking. What if I could travel in time? What would I do? Where
would I go? What would I want to find out? And perhaps more importantly, what
wouldn’t I want to find out?

So here are the top five things I would do if I had a time machine.

1. I would go back in time to the beginning of the earth. I know that the
atmospheric conditions would probably mean I wouldn’t survive very long, so
the time machine would have to come equipped with every type of survival outfit
you would need. But how cool would that be? To see planet earth when it very
first started!!

2. I would go forward in time 500 years and see if we still exist! Some of my
favourite books at the moment are set in futuristic worlds where life is run by
societies very different from our own. I’d love to see what is really in store for
our civilisation. Will we still be around then? Will we have conquered illness and
poverty – or will cockroaches be the only things walking?

3. I would go back about thirty years, when my beloved grandmother, who we
called Mama, was alive. I would tell her that I love her, and that I’ll never forget
her. But most of all, I’d give her an enormous hug. She was always the best
hugger. Oh, OK, if I’m honest – I’d get her to make me some of her wonderful
chocolate cake too!!

4. I’d go forward maybe ten years or so, and see if my books are still on the
shelves. If they were, I’d come back and take all my friends and family out for a
slap up meal. And if they weren’t, I’d get on the phone to my publicist and tell her
we need to work harder!!

5. And finally, when I’d had all those adventures in my time machine, I think I’d
destroy it. Because, you know what? The present is really all that we’ve got – and
at this moment, I’m pretty happy with that!

*

Thanks Liz! Number five didn't quite fit with my plans, but I'm selfish like that ;) Phew, suddenly I'm glad no one has the gift (or burden?) of having such machine - because as we all know, with great power   comes great responsibility! 

Don't forget to check out Liz's blog at http://www.lizkessler.co.uk/  and the rest of the tour stops below:

Put those 'likes' into use!

Bloggers and fellow book lovers, check this out!

Orion Books are running a thriving YA Facebook page called Fierce Fiction, which is currently running an Octoberfest giveaway. This week, three entrants will win four of their titles. Check out the attached photo for more information. Don't forget to 'like' the page and be among the first to hear about and win fabulous books!

If you're more of a Dark Fantasy fan, do check out Gollancz Dark Fantasy page. They are hosting a True Blood competition every Tuesday, and this week, five lucky readers will win a copy of L.A. Banks' MINION! Check out the photo below for details. As always, don't forget to 'like' the page to be eligible for future giveaways!

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.

BY MIDNIGHT (MIA JAMES)

April Dunne is not impressed. She had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She's left her friends - and her entire life - behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she's stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students - and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. 

So she's stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart . . . and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It's intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson - and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift. But there's more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from . . . something . . . . in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on. . . . and whether or not she's going to live through it . . .

To be published by Orion Books on 15 July 2010.

Highgate is a familiar place to me and the idea of Vampires in Highgate is quite exciting! Not to mention it is being released on my birthday!

Watch this creepy trailer if you need more convincing. I love it!

Book Reviews: Love Bites (Lynsay Sands)

Etienne Argeneau can turn one human into a vampire in his lifetime - an honour his kind usually reserved for their life mates, to let their love life forever.

But it's all a bit more complicated than that. Rachel Garrett, a beautiful coroner, has just saved his life and now she's about to lose hers. Etienne has a choice: he can save her life in turn, and thus doom himself to an eternity alone, unable to create his own life mate. Or he can watch his saviour die in the name of a love he has yet to meet.
Her life and his love weigh in the balance, and whatever Etienne does he may live to regret for eternity . . .


The first book in the Argeneau series introduces the Argeneau family, and features a chaotic romance you can really sink your teeth into.

I bought this because I was so drawn into the blurb. Lately, I've been attracted to books which in part deals with difficult choices, and this one incorporates romance into that. Couldn't be bad right?

Love Bites is the book that got me back into reading. After Twilight I went into a total fan-girl (also known as bitchy) mode and closed my doors to any YA or paranormal romance books. Love Bites was so promising it just flung those closed doors open.

I absolutely fell for the really really cute humour that is the whole book. Rachel is such a funny character - she's strong and naive at the same time, whiny and independent and she's such a girl-next-door type that anyone can relate to. Etienne - and the rest of the Argeneaus for that matter - I found rather immature for their age, which is an element that I never would have thought I would like.

Technically, Etienne's decision is made pretty early in the book, so I was slightly disappointed by that. Most of the actions and the humour however, occur after that decision, and I hugely enjoyed it. The resolution was slight quick for my taste but that is ignorable, and besides, there are always those other characters that would help - cliche, yes, but in Love Bites, the way those other characters help was honestly funny.

A great read for any romance lover.

Four stars.