The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless

From Goodreads:
Kate 
I'm the last mermaid. I'm back on shores of Lake Erie, but the cold waters are silent. There is nothing here for me but ghosts and the beach glass that litters the rocky shore. Long ago, I lived below the waves. Now, I am the sole survivor, and at long last, my mermaid glamour is leaving me. Every day, I walk the beach. Every day, I wonder what happened to my people. The little pieces of colored glass that wash ashore give me simple pleasure. They are gifts from the lake, reminders of home. I fashion them into trinkets: necklaces, earrings, bracelets. They are beautiful things. The humans seem love them. Every day, I walk the beach. Nothing ever changes, until the day he says hello. 

Cooper 
I'm dying. It's not a question, it's a fact. The cancer is eating me alive. They told me I have six months to live, maybe less. I came home, back to Chancellor on Lake Erie, to die. The sunsets are vivid there, and I will relish every one. I've never seen anything more beautiful than a Lake Erie sunset until I see her. All life is as fragile as glass. What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?



My Thoughts:
This is a sweet, feel-good story. I played it on audio book while cleaning, and the shorter length of the novella really helped pass the time. In the town of Chancellor, old myths and legends still exist, hidden away. This story follows Kate, the last mermaid of Lake Erie, as she comes to terms with how long she has outlived her kind and her dealing with her grief to do with her part in their demise.
Cooper returns home to live the last of his life in his childhood home, but when he meets Kate, he finds a reason to fight.
I love how each character strengthened and uplifted the other, even when they didn't know the pain the other was going through. I very much enjoyed this book.

Blog Tour: Crossing the Line by Ellen Wolfson Valladares

Son of a Pitch Finalist: Dream a Little Dream of Me

Title: Dream a Little Dream of Me
Category and Genre: (YA/Magical Realism/Time-travel)
Word Count: 86,000

Query:
A year has passed since sixteen-year-old Ellie Barrett’s mother died. She pulled away from her two best friends and her once-beloved Aunt Jane who’s now her guardian. She only talks to Nate, the loner guy at school with a mysterious past. She doesn’t see her life ever changing until the night she wishes on a shooting star to get her mother back. And she does, just not the way she imagined.

Now, instead of sleeping, she travels to 1976 when her mother was sixteen-year-old Trix. Being with her mom is a dream-come-true . . . almost. Ellie loves Trix and adores her grandmother and her aunt at twelve. But Trix isn’t a mom-substitute, and time-travel has its downsides. Besides never sleeping, Ellie vanishes when she travels from one time to the other. In the past she’s healthy, but in her present Ellie fears she won’t survive.

Time-travel is killing Ellie, so she must choose—if she can—life in the past with her sixteen-year-old mother or life without her mother at all.


First 250 Words:
The breeze on top of the Empire State Building gusts Mom’s soft hippie skirt behind her, her black and silver hair intertwining with mine. “Can anything be better than this?” she asks.
We pose like figureheads on a ship, arms outstretched, hugging all of Manhattan, the car lights streaming like rivers far below.
I laugh. “When did heights stop bothering you?”
Mom wraps her arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “When I died, my sweet.”
My alarm went off, the droning buzz erasing Mom’s voice. I hit the clock, needing to smack something. To break something. My heart pounded, my eyes teary.
Mom Dream #365. She leaves me. Again.
I curled into a ball under my comforter, my arms wrapped around me. Me pretending they’re hers. I didn’t know which was worse—great dreams where Mom is herself or the ones like last night’s where she sat next to me at her funeral, skeleton thin, accusing me of forgetting her, preferring Aunt Jane.
No matter which kind of dream, waking up was torture. I wanted her here, whether she was nightmare Mom or real Mom. Real Mom—pushy, loving, funny, mush under impatience—would know how desperately I missed her, that I’d do anything to get her back, to have her open the door, hear her say my name.
“Ellie, you up?”
Wrong! Wrong person!
The door creaked opened. “Ellie, answer so I know you’re awake.”
Every morning we did this. She’d sound like Mom, but every morning she wasn’t.

Son of a Pitch Entry: Dylan

****Only editors/agents and the writer of the entry can comment on this post.

Title: Dylan
Category and Genre: Literary Fiction/Magical Realism
Word Count: 70K
Query: 
A FORREST GUMP meets PRACTICAL MAGIC tale.

Most everyone in the family calls Dylan “slow.” Worse, his abusive mother claims he’s wicked. He might not think fast, and it takes him awhile to form the words he wants, but Dylan has magic. He can spin marbles from oyster shells, and whip up Chicken Alfredo by tapping his thumbs together. In fact, he hopes to be a famous chef someday and put his magic to good use. Right now, the only one to appreciate his supernatural abilities is his loving uncle and caretaker, a disabled Vietnam veteran. When Uncle Jim dies, Dylan’s Aunt Agnes sells the house the two lived in, and ships Dylan off to an adult boarding home. There Dylan meets an equally gifted but troubled young lady named Liona.

With a rocky beginning, Dylan finally finds a friend in Liona whose mind-reading abilities makes it easier for him to communicate. Just when he settles into his new life a precious gift from his deceased uncle is destroyed. Despondent, Dylan flees to the beach and the oyster beds where he feels most at home, and where his magical empowerment comes from. His old Vietnamese friend, Tim Lan offers him a room in his shanty in exchange for his magically-made pearls. Dylan is tormented by the suspect requests of Tim Lan, for the old man takes his pearls to town and they mysteriously disappear. He’s muddled by his feelings for Liona for he’s never had a girlfriend before. His nightmare ensues when his drug addicted mother, who had once washed her hands of him, returns to exploit his gifts. He’s never stood up to her, and he risks losing everything he’s worked for - his relationship with Liona, with Tim Lan, and any hopes of independence - if he lets her destroy him.

250 Words:

By the time I was eighteen I didn’t care what Aunt Agnes said about me. I was happy. I had the two things that I needed most. Uncle Jim, and magic.

“He doesn’t connect the dots right,” Aunt Agnes complained to my cousin Shirley the night she drove me and Uncle Jim home from my graduation ceremony. My cousin always sat in front whenever we went anywhere. 
Shirley looked over her shoulder at me and scoffed while Aunt Agnes kept talking. “He can’t carry on a civil conversation. In fact, I don’t know if he is past the third-grade level of reading.”

I rolled my eyes. But Uncle Jim growled and then went into a coughing fit. He didn’t say anything though. How could he? He was facing the back of the van sitting in a wheel chair behind me. Once we got home, Aunt Agnes lowered the lift, and Uncle Jim steam-rolled into the house. I followed him inside with Aunt Agnes at my heels. Uncle Jim threw his baseball cap on the couch, and grumbled something fierce, maneuvering his chair through the litter in our living room. I could see a fight coming because Aunt Agnes and Uncle Jim fought a lot. Usually about me. I appreciated his support, but I didn’t like him yelling. The noise reminded me of my mother and the wicked years. I dodged into my room and waited for Aunt Agnes to leave, holding my hands over my ears until the front door slammed.

Son of a Pitch YA Entry: Broken

Title: Broken

Age and Genre: YA Fantasy – Magical

Word Count: 74K

Query:

Kylie Minor can recite the history of her people. She knows how wizards once placed witches on pedestals and fought for their attention. How overzealous human morality hunts complete with stake burnings and drownings changed their existence. How witches turned to the wizards for protection and were forced into subservient roles. How they went from being deities to doormats. It’s no wonder the witches are hiding. Waiting around for your power to be drained does not sound like a good time. But Kylie’s pretty low on the social scale, so she’s not that worried about becoming someone’s slave/wife. All she wants is to celebrate her seventeenth birthday, figure out why there is a wizard following her, and stop living in the shadows.

Ty Jessup has been dreaming of a position on the Wizard council for years. He only took the job as witch hunter to pad his resume, not because he agreed with their ways. Watching his mother wither as her magic was drained led him to understand why the witches took off in the first place. But now the council will not take him seriously unless he’s betrothed to a witch. The more powerful the witch, the higher his stock will be since her power will become his. But Ty’s power is strong enough and he’s not willing to betroth a witch just to become a candidate. Yet.

As both the mass wedding ceremony and council meeting approach, the final chance to revoke the tenets and by laws is coming up. There are those willing to destroy the future in order to maintain the present. Change is hard. But Kylie and Ty must choose between fighting for what they want and fighting for what’s right. When those two do not align, sacrifice is required.

FIRST 250

            The high moon hid behind a blanket of clouds as blue light crawled through the yard like slow rolling fog, slithering over the steps and slipping under the door. Magic glided across Marta’s skin. She sat up, scanning her room and sensing the source of the intrusion. Whatever enchantment entered her house, it did so by permeating her wards.

She slipped her feet from beneath the covers to the hard wood floor and waited. Her body complained about the sudden move. Old bones wanted rest, not to investigate sinister shadows creeping in the night. But power pulsed from the strange presence in her house. And strange presences were not welcome, especially ones that violated protection wards.

             Light flickering from beneath Kylie’s bedroom door drew Marta down the hall. Her pained steps quickened. Was that blasted child testing her magic at this late hour? Surely not. She knew the rules. Marta opened the door, ready to punish the child, in excess if needed.

            Across the room, Kylie lay asleep in the bed. Darkness shrouded everything, except for the light streaming from the siombol on the back of her neck. Her witch’s mark glowed like a brilliant star.

             Marta drew closer, wanting to touch the girl. Who was she? This stranger with brown eyes and a complex siombol. She’d attempted to mask Kylie’s magic to hide her, but doing so was like denying sunlight to a sprig destined to become a mighty tree.  

            Long fingers of panic gripped Marta. What if she had made too many mistakes?

Son of a Pitch YA Entry: Nascent

Title: NASCENT

Age and Genre: YA Paranormal

Word Count: 109,000
Query:

Seventeen-year-old Tori lost the love of her life in the Everglades. In the six months since Terrance’s disappearance, Tori has conversed with increasingly realistic imaginary people and earned a priority ticket to Briarwood Psychiatric Hospital. Where else would she go after accidentally stabbing her brother? The doctors say, ‘hallucinations,’ Tori says, ‘crazy,’ but her best friend says ‘ghosts.’ If only Tori believed ghosts existed, maybe she could find Terrance. As it is, finding her sanity seems impossible enough.
But then a questionable traveler at a pop-up carnival claims Terrance is alive, for now. He’s trapped in the clutches of a necromancer bent on raising a particular soul – even if it requires a few human sacrifices. The carnie insists there’s a way Tori can save Terrance and also regain control of her own crumbling psyche. That is, if she’s willing to buy into a dangerous world of magic.
With time running out, Tori must quickly decide whether to trust her own eyes, despite what the rest of the world calls reality. If she can’t defeat the demons inside her and the darkness that surrounds her, she will forfeit not only her life, but the lives of everyone she loves.

First 250 Words:

Clara isn’t the first person to try coaxing me out of the house, but she may be the first to succeed. Not because boozing it up with her and her new bestie, Kelli, is my idea of a good time, but because she’s so dang whiny about it.

“Come on, Tori,” she pouts over the phone. “My mom won’t be home. The house will be all ours, and I know where she keeps the stash.”

It’s not like Sherri’s stash is hard to find. Most of it is under her bed, in the back bedroom she thinks we never enter. In the back bedroom, where she thinks she can go to drink and mourn and not affect anyone else. But grief doesn’t work that way.

“Tonight’s not a great night.”

Which isn’t saying much. I’d have to go back a year to reach my last decent night. Back before I spent some of those nights in a mental hospital my fellow crazies and I lovingly termed Hotel Briarwood.

“It’s never a great night,” Clara huffs. “It’s always, ‘I don’t feel good,’ or ‘tonight isn’t the best,’ or ‘why don’t we try another time?’ But we never do! The only time I see you is when I come over, and you know my mom doesn’t like it when I take the car. She carpooled tonight, so this is one of the only shots we have. Are you seriously going to stay home?”

I clench my jaw so tight it hurts.

Blitz for Cadence!

This week, YA Bound is hosting a blitz for the Cadence Duology. So check out the giveaway and the books!

Deceptive Cadence (Cadence #1)
by Katie Hamstead
Release Date: June 2015
REUTS Publications

Summary from Goodreads:

Cadence Anderson has the perfect definition of happily ever after . . .

Until she doesn't. A freak earthquake shatters her life as surely as her home, taking away everything she holds dear. She wakes in a hospital to find that her beloved husband and infant daughter have been killed, crushed by the earthquake's wrath. Disoriented, injured, and alone, Cadence refuses to accept the loss. So when a man claiming to be her guardian angel appears and offers her a chance to go back in time to save her family, she doesn't need to give it a second thought. She accepts.

Thrust back eleven years, she now faces the ordeal of high school all over again. But this time, she's armed with all the knowledge of her adult life and the determination to do everything better, from preventing the loss of her best friend to avoiding her original, drama-inducing boyfriends. She's focused solely on Austin, her future husband, and is content to bide her time until she meets him again.

But then James Gordon crosses her path. Cadence wants to remain single, but James has his sights set. He is determined to win her over, and he's very hard to resist. As Cadence starts to develop unwanted feelings for him, she realizes he threatens to disrupt everything, changing the future and distracting her from her original goal. Now, Cadence must choose: deny the unpredictable and exciting path James offers her, or stay true to the life she had and is trying desperately to resurrect. Second chances are more complicated than they seem.

Deceptive Cadence combines the soaring emotion of a heartfelt romance with the innovative storytelling of magical realism, crafting a uniquely moving, intricate tale about love and loss that asks: what would you do if given the chance to right all your wrongs?

Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble

Diverging Cadence (Cadence #2)

by Katie Hamstead

Release Date: August 25th 2015

REUTS Publications

Summary from Goodreads:

When Cadence Anderson woke to find her husband and infant daughter had been killed, she thought her life was over. Instead, she was offered a second chance and sent back in time to do it all again. 

She’s made the most of this opportunity, repairing her relationship with the best friend she lost the first time, avoiding the romantic mistakes she made originally, and even bringing her family closer together. But she’s also done something she wasn’t planning on—she’s fallen in love with someone other than her future husband.

Stepping onto a plane and flying across country to attend university is the hardest decision she’s had to make. But unless she follows through with it, her future with Austin might never happen. And what becomes of her beautiful baby if she stays with James, the man she was never supposed to love?

The only thing she knows for certain is that she has to see Austin again, and she’s intent on reliving that part of her previous life exactly like she did the first time. Even if that means she has to lie to James to do it. Because, deep down, she can’t quite bring herself to let him go. 

Now, past and future are about to collide, and Cadence has to make her final choice—follow the uncertain path of a life with James, or the one she came back to save . . . with Austin. 

In this emotional conclusion to the story that began in Deceptive Cadence, relationships will be tested, identities revealed, and the past will overshadow the future, putting the finishing touches on an unforgettable tale of courage, sacrifice, and, above all, love.

Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble

Book Trailer:

About the Author

Born and raised in Australia, Katie's early years of day dreaming in the "bush", and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.
After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughter and their dog.
She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing.
When her debut novel, Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh, climbed into bestselling status, she believed she was onto something, and now has a slew of novels now available, and is published through Curiosity Quills Press, Soul Mate Publishing, and REUTS Publishing.
Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports, and be a good wife and mother. She now works as an Acquisitions Editor to help support her family. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.

Author Links:

   

GIVEAWAY:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Real Life Stuff in Cadence

As I've said in the past, there are scenes in Deceptive Cadence that come from my real life. This was something I consciously chose to do to not only give the characters and story a real life depth, but as a for of personal expression of memories I haven't really shared and had left me wondering "what if" which is the whole premise of the story.

So first scene coming from a real experience:
The first school disco where Cadence meets James.
 In this scene, he sneaks up behind her and pretends to spank her. This did happen to me in the ninth grade and a guy from the grade above. He didn't follow me afterward, but I did notice him watching me here and there in the hallways etc and I tried to ignore it because I was nervous about guys after a string of boyfriends in my eighth grade year.

This also leans onto the second real life scene:
Where Cadence is by the window and James yells out at her. In real life, this same guy from the disco was on his own, and he saw me by a window. He paused and asked me to come out to suck on his... herm. I was like WOW what? And walked away super embarrassed. I guess he was my bad boy I was terrified to approach but left me wondering.

Cadence's mad aggression in sports:
All me, baby. I broke ribs, noses (once one of my own team mates accidentally. My bad) fingers, and not only on others, but myself too. I even drew blood by throwing a ball once. The girl totally deserved it for making my friend bleed. Man, that Catholic school was aggressive.

The painter guy:
Just like in the book, a friend and I were sent to the library to collect books for the class. She went back before me, and I followed. Once I returned to the classroom, she was giggling her head off, and told me the young painter stopped her and asked about me. This was 10th grade.

Melanie being confused as a boy:
This was a story I heard from several of my friends because I attended a different school in 7th grade. A couple of girls noticed someone in their class and believed them to be a boy because of the boy's uniform and cropped hair. When they discovered he was in fact a she, they were terribly embarrassed for crushing on "him." They all laughed about it further down the track, unlike Melanie who took offense.

9/11 at the school disco:
The night this happened, I had attended a school disco before. I don't think anyone can forget that day, so I placed Cadence in the same place I was.

Geri:
Yes, Geri is loosely based on someone who had been my close friend, then we fell apart for a reason that still remains a mystery to me. Cadence had a chance to discover and fix why she lost her best friend, I don't think I'll ever know.

Michael:
Michael is also based on a good friend of mine. I will name him too because he got me through a lot in high school. Warren was in my roll call class, and gave me sound, quiet advice to get me through. I will forever be grateful to him for his uncomplicated friendship he gave me, thus why I put Michael in there.

James:

As I said before, there was that guy in the grade above me who kind of hovered for a while, but never really approached me. In his 12th grade, he and his friends got suspended for vandalizing the school, and he was the only one to turn up for their "community service" of helping with maintaining the school grounds. I guess when I saw that I wondered what kind of person he could have been if he had better friends.
James also has many of my husband's quirky personality traits. Maybe that's why he's so lovable.

Places I knew were also included. 
The high school is my high school; Penrith HS, the ice rink in Penrith was a place we loved to hang out during breaks, Cadence's home is a modified version of my own. In book two, the flat she and Lyla live in is a replica of my first flat in Ashfield, and James' town home is like one several of my friends lived in in Emu Plains. The beach he takes Cadence to for their one year is Cave's Beach in Newcastle, which technically isn't in Sydney, but that's the beach I envisioned.

This Week on the Blog Tour

This week's tour stops. Only a few more left now. Don't forget to enter the tour giveaway.

Sharon Bayliss - Review

Ann M. Noser - Interview

My So-Called Book Reviews - Review

The Bookish and the Romantic - Spotlight

Kisa Whipkey - Review

Cover Reveal for my NEW Book--Deceptive Cadence!

This book has been i the works for a long time, so I'm very excited to share this new cover with you and say the release is only months away! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this baby.

So, here are the details:

Cadence Anderson has the perfect definition of happily ever after . . .

Until she doesn't. A freak earthquake shatters her life as surely as her home, taking away everything she holds dear. She wakes in a hospital to find that her beloved husband and infant daughter have been killed, crushed by the earthquake's wrath. Disoriented, injured, and alone, Cadence refuses to accept the loss. So when a man claiming to be her guardian angel appears and offers her a chance to go back in time to save her family, she doesn't need to give it a second thought. She accepts.

Thrust back eleven years, she now faces the ordeal of high school all over again. But this time, she's armed with all the knowledge of her adult life and the determined to do everything better, from preventing the loss of her best friend to avoiding her original, drama-inducing boyfriends. She's focused solely on Austin, her future husband, and is content to bide her time until she meets him again.

But then James Gordon crosses her path. Cadence wants to remain single, but James has his sights set. He is determined to win her over, and he's very hard to resist. As Cadence starts to develop unwanted feelings for him, she realizes he threatens to disrupt everything, changing the future and distracting her from her original goal. Now, Cadence must choose: deny the unpredictable and exciting path James offers her, or stay true to the life she had and is trying desperately to resurrect. Second chances are more complicated than they seem.

Deceptive Cadence combines the soaring emotion of a heartfelt romance with the innovative storytelling of magical realism, crafting a uniquely moving, intricate tale about love and loss that asks: what would you do if given the chance to right all your wrongs?

Add it on Goodreads

And since you guys know me, I think you know how to find me on my blog (here) twitter, and Facebook. If not, my links are on the right. :-)

I hope you like! I love the simplicity, but yet how pretty it is, and so Cadence!!!

Check out some of the other cover reveal hosts:

http://asleuthofbears.com/?p=92
http://www.eventide-barley.com/cover-reveal-deceptive-cadence/
http://summerwier.com/cover-reveal-deceptive-cadence-by-katie-hamstead-2/