{BLOG TOUR} Excerpt + Giveaway: The Boyfriend Backtrack by Dawn Lanuza

Title: The Boyfriend Backtrack
Author: Dawn Lanuza
Publication: October 3rd 2014,
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Buy it on: Amazon

SYNOPSIS:

If they say that life flashes right before your eyes when you die, do you also get a flashback of your exes when your perfect boyfriend is proposing to you? At least that's the case for Regina Cortez. There's her dramatic high school boyfriend, her first college crush, the irresistible heart breaker, and the ever elusive one. By backtracking to her past, will Regina make it to 'I Do'? Or will she just keep running away?

EXCERPT

“What if we get married,” he blurts out. No, more like, he spat it out.

I lean back on my chair, completely taken aback, “What?”

Kevin pulls his hand away and reaches into his pocket. He fishes out a blue velvet box. I squeeze my eyes shut. That is not what I think that is. This is not happening. Is it really? I open my eyes. Yup, box still in the table. I try to recall if there was a hint of proposal in our earlier conversation but all I could remember was whether or not we’re having Japanese or French tonight. So no, definitely, no.

“I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it?” He asks me, snapping me back to focus.

I lean back to the table to gauge his reaction. Is he serious? Is he being forced to marry so he can settle back to Sacramento? I find myself looking back down at the box. Kevin begins to talk again but I couldn’t make out a single word.

I bet it’s the wrong ring. Kevin has weird taste in jewelry. As much as he’s got good taste in everything else, the man can’t seem to get it right when it comes to jewelry. Last time, he bought me these earrings that I only wore for a night and never wore again. I do not look good in hoop earrings, never did and never will.

And in the middle of me thinking about where I put those earrings, the most bizarre thing happened. It was more bizarre than the fact that I was thinking about these earrings when my boyfriend just dropped the word marriage into the table.

In movies, they call this bit a ‘montage’: a series of shots edited into a sequence. In my case, it was a series of all the men I’ve dated before I landed in this very table, in a quaint French restaurant, drinking wine from some French villa, staring at a blue velvet box from my boyfriend of three years. 

There weren’t many of them, but it was disturbing, still. I mean, Dirk was in it. Dirk, who I’m not even sure I even really liked to begin with. And then there was Thomas, and Josh…

GIVEAWAY

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About The Author:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Dawn Lanuza has been imagining and writing love stories since she was a kid. She works for the music industry by day, and writes about meet cutes and snappy comebacks by night. She writes short stories, chick lit and young-adult fiction. She has a degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines.

OMG! She graduated from the same program as I do! Soooo awesome! Anyway, thanks to Dianne of OIRA Tours for this! Be sure to keep in check with other blog tours!

{BLOG TOUR} Excerpt + Giveaway: The Light in The Wound by Christine Brae

Title: The Light in The Wound
Author: Christine Brae
Publication: July 23rd 2013, CreateSpace
Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

Affected by her parents’ highly publicized divorce, Isabel grows up isolated and alone, with a resolve to never fall in love and repeat their mistakes.

When Jesse Cain enters her life, she falls hopelessly in love with him, and every sadness she’s ever felt is washed away by his intensity and passion. But people change as they grow up. Things can never stay the same forever.

Jesse and Isabel fight to stay together, determined to hold on to what they once had. Isabel wonders if a second love can ever be enough to make her forget her first.

EXCERPT

“Isabel, you are so pretty. No, exquisite. Beautiful.”

And then it happened. Our first kiss. Slow and gentle at first, tentative and unsure. He smelled like cool grass and sun and all I wanted to do was inhale him. And though I closed my eyes, I saw him clearly. I had learned in my life that the good things were fleeting, and everything always came to an end. I wanted to remember this moment forever.

GIVEAWAY

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About The Author:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

Christine Brae is a full time career woman who thought she could write a book about her life and then run away as far as possible from it. She never imagined that her words would touch the hearts of so many women with the same story to tell. She is currently working on her third book which she hopes to release in June,2014.

When not listening to the voices in her head or spending late nights at the office, Christine can be seen shopping for shoes and purses, running a half marathon or spending time with her husband and three children in Chicago.

Thank you to Amanda for inviting me to the Bookish Diaries Book Tours! Congratulations on the first tour ever! Be sure to join in for review opportunities and blitzes! :)

{BLOG TOUR} Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1)
Author: Claudia Gray
Publication: Nov. 4th 2014, HarperTeen
Format: ARC, 368 pages
Source: Tour Book from Pinoy Book Tours! (Thanks Dianne)
Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Kobo | The Book Depository | National Book Store (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

Misfit Review:

I have been excited to read this book for a very long time, and when the opportunity came for me to read it, thanks to Pinoy Book Tours, I immediately grabbed it and it was the best damn decision of my life! I'll keep this review as short and sweet as possible, but I think that it's quite impossible if I end up going on with my feelings!

"This is the message I must pass on, the one goal I have to remember after everything else I am is gone. Kill Paul Markov."(ARC 1)

Okay, so the story starts with Marguerite Caine seeking revenge for the death of her father. He wants to rat out Paul Markov, an genius assistant that killed her father and destroyed all the files that had been the fruit of their research. He also stole a device called the Firebird, which allows a person to travel into different alternate dimensions and merge with their alternate self once in that dimension. With the help of Theo, another one of Henry Caine's assistants, they search for Paul with their own Firebird prototypes, to kill him.

THIS STORY IS JUST WAY TO FANTASTIC AND I CANNOT WITH IT!!! I'm telling you already, it is beautiful and cinematic and just downright stab to the heart. We are taken into different dimensions that refer to a lot of the present culture as well as those of the past and future. It takes us into these possible cultures we would have and those that we may have forgotten. And please! A FIREBIRD? Gods I wish it was real!

What makes the plot so intense and beautifully written is that scenes are leading you into what you think you would want to happen and then BAM! Surprise surprise! I just love the twist and turns of this story. The characters are well built, conflicting, interesting and best of all, DAMN HOT!

"You paint the truth Marguerite. I don't think you could any other way." (ARC 49)

The dynamics of the characters are done well. There are hints of fluttering romance between both Theo and Marguerite and Paul and Marguerite... I am now tasked to hurt myself to choose between the two even if one pair is far more inducing than the other.

The settings of each dimension are dazzling and engaging! Especially the one in Russia! It feels very much like Anastasia Romanov and her family. The Russian dimension is my favorite and you'll know why once you read it! The one at London, which was the first stop, is very futuristic and allowed us morsels of needed information that are very vital for the growth of the story!

Since this is a trilogy, the ending didn't exactly give a lot of answers but it makes you want more. HECK! It gives you a case of separation anxiety, and that isn't so good. I'm still left with a very needy hangover and I need Firebird #2 or I might go insane. 2015, why you take so long?

Claudia Gray gave us worthy characters, a fantastic story line, an out of this world experience set in pages and though this is my first Claudia Gray book, I already consider her as one of my favorites! THANKS ATPOY!

A Thousand Pieces of You leaves you searching, wanting, longing and incredibly excited for what's about to come and having read this book is an honor that I will cherish forever!

I wish I made an infinite rating photo, coz it is soooo worthy of that!

About The Author:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Claudia Gray is not my real name. I didn't choose a pseudonym because my real name is unpleasant (it isn't), because I'd always dreamed of calling myself this (I haven't) or even because I'm hiding from the remnants of that international diamond-smuggling cartel I smashed in 2003 (Interpol has taken care of them). In short, I took a pseudonym for no real reason whatsoever. Sometimes this is actually the best reason to do things.

I live in New Orleans. So far, in life, I've been a disc jockey, a lawyer, a journalist and an extremely bad waitress, just to name a few. I especially like to spend time traveling, hiking, reading and listening to music. More than anything else, I enjoy writing.

{Blog Tour} Guest Post + Giveaway: T.M. Franklin on "Awww...Young Love"

Hi! Today, we are joined by the lovely and talented T.M. Franklin, as she shares with us what it means to fall in love at a young age and also talking about her book, How To Get Ainsley Bishop To Fall In Love With You! Have fun guys!

Awww…Young Love

By T.M. Franklin

There’s nothing quite like the blush of first love. That first eyes-across-a-crowded-cafeteria moment. The first dance. The first kiss. That warm, bubbly feeling in your stomach, the sweaty palms and the pounding heartbeat.