The Alchemists Academy Book 1: Stones to Ashes by Kailin Gow

What do you learn here…at the Academy? Wirt asks. Magic? The responsibility to use your powers responsibly? Uh…something like that, his roommate Spencer said. More like how to rule worlds. Wirt, is used to being shuffled from foster home to foster home, adopting a devil-may-care attitude toward the world along the way. Now he s in a school he can t escape, learning to develop his latent magical abilities, for what use, he doesn’t know…to save his world or to destroy it…

The Alchemists Academy Book 2: Elemental Explosions by Kailin Gow

A new student has entered The Alchemists Academy, and he brings with him an explosive power that threatens the Academy and the legend of Merlin. Wirt thought he was the only bad boy at the Academy, but he was wrong. Not only is Roland Black worse than Wirt, but a new teacher had replaced one of their beloved teachers, and she has more planned for Wirt and his friends than just lesson plans. Alana, his crush has grown prettier, and now he is rivals for her attention with not only his best friend Spencer, but newcomer Roland, as well. On top of that, it is their second year, and the year where all the students must pass a test to move on to the Elite Class at the Academy. The Elite Class is the only class in the third year at the Academy, and the students who fail will be sent home, others will face something even deadlier.

Author Kailin Gow

Kailin Gow is the award-winning, international bestselling author of over 80 distinct books.

Kailin Gow is also the President of a media company, a media personality, and has been writing full-time since she was first published. Holding a Masters in communications management and leadership positions in Fortune 500 corporations, she puts her leadership abilities, her experience, and desire to help others into her fiction books. As a result, she has written the forthcoming, Finding the Heroine in You book which is also a national tour. She is a mother and spends whatever spare time she has volunteering at the Red Cross, Battered Women’s Shelters, and other organizations.

Currently her Frost Series is in development for a major international MMO Game, and she has over 14,000 and growing Frosters on her facebook fan page.

Book Blast $50 Giveaway Details
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 12/31/12
*You need not enter your twitter name for each entry. Simply enter it for the first person you follow and leave the others blank.

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas Ever After by Elyse Douglas

Can 26-year-old JENNIFER TAYLOR overcome her past—the death of her fiancé that has left her bitter and angry? Will she accept the gift of an adventure from a mysterious woman before it’s too late: a trip to New York City on Christmas Eve, where she’ll meet three men who will change her life forever?

Book Trailer

About the Authors

Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the husband and wife writing team of Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse’s mother was a painter and her father a textile consultant. Elyse began writing poems and short stories at an early age, and graduated from Columbia University with a Master’s Degree in English Literature. Douglas grew up in a family of musicians, astrologers and avid readers. His grandfather was a gifted humorist and storyteller from Kentucky.

Elyse Douglas’ four novels include: The Astrologer’s Daughter, Wanting Rita, The Christmas Diary and Christmas Ever After. They live in New York City.

Book Blast Giveaway
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 12/16/12
*You need not enter your twitter name for each entry. Simply enter it when you follow Elyse and leave the others blank.

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I really am so impressed and also happy to be working with World Vision this year. They are a humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities around the world to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

In this video, watch how the gift of just one goat helped transform the lives of one family in Tanzania

At World Vision International, you can give a gift of a goat and two chickens, two ducks, sponsor a child or donate to the clean water fund. There are really so many wonderful ways to help.

We are all one global community. Everyone is our brother and sister. Even the smallest donation can help transform lives, and this, I believe, is the true meaning of Christmas. We are not just helping once; we are helping create brighter futures.

World Vision also has a lovely gift catalog full of inspiration. Donors can also receive free handmade gifts such as ornaments from Nairobi and jewelry from Thailand with a contribution to the Maximum Impact Fund, which helps in the areas of greatest needs.

They sent me this absolutely gorgeous handcrafted artisan beaded necklace from Thailand to review. I felt very honored to wear it and found it to be stunning. You can wear it as a necklace looped over or straight or wrapped around your arm as a bracelet. The beads are very beautiful and it is truly a lovely piece of wearable art. It is one of my absolute favorites and goes with everything.  You can get one or gift one with a donation of $60.

Approximate size is 44″ around (22″ long when worn as a single necklace).

I love to wear it wrapped around my arm:

They have also generously offered the same beautiful necklace to one of my readers.

So, this holiday season, I wish you joy, I wish you peace, I wish you love.

Please enter via Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was provide the artisan beaded necklace for review however all opinions, thoughts are my own.  

Goddess Girls #9 – Pandora the Curious

Is Pandora about to open up a box of trouble?

One of the few mortals at Mount Olympus Academy, Pandora is famous for her mega quizzical nature—not that she thinks there’s anything wrong with being curious, of course!

Her curiosity kicks into high gear when a godboy named Epimetheus brings a mysterious box to school. Epimetheus is the nephew of an MOA teacher in whose class Pandora once opened another box that sent a few weather disasters to earth. Still, Pandora can’t help but take a peek inside this new box when it unexpectedly lands in her lap. What could be the harm in that, right? Little does she know that opening the box will open up far more trouble than she ever expected!

Authors Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams put a modern spin on classic myths with the Goddess Girls series. Follow the ins and outs of divine social life at Mount Olympus Academy, where the most privileged godboys and goddessgirls in the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills

Author Suzanne Williams

Suzanne Williams is the award-winning author of nearly 40 books for children, from picture books and easy readers to chapter books and middle grade fiction series. A former elementary school librarian, she lives near Seattle. Her picture book Library Lil (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) won the New Mexico children’s choice award in 2000 and was on several other state award lists. She is co-author (with Joan Holub) of the popular Goddess Girls series(for ages 8 – 12) and Heroes in Training (ages 6 – 11). Other series include Fairy Blossoms and Princess Power.

Author Joan Holub

I graduated from college in Texas with a fine arts degree, and then freelanced as an art director at a graphic design firm for eight years. I dreamed of working in children’s books, so I moved to New York City and became associate art director in Scholastic trade books, where I designed books for children and worked with editors and illustrators. It was a great job.

I illustrated my first published children’s book in 1992 and soon began illustrating full time. I began completing manuscripts and mailing them out to publishers in the early 1990s. In 1996, I sold my first two manuscripts — Boo Who? A Spooky Lift-the-Flap Book (Scholastic) and Pen Pals (Grosset & Dunlap). Yippee!

Now I write full time and have written and/or illustrated over 130 children’s books. Creating books that entertain, inform, and interest children (and me) is a fabulous job that I truly love.

Book Blast Giveaway
$100 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 12/16/12
*You need not enter your twitter name for each entry. Simply enter it when you follow Joan and leave the others blank.

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the cool blog app above! Make as many baskets as you can and unlock special clips along the way!

 One lucky reader will win a Thunderstruck combo pack! (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital Download).

Just follow the simple Rafflecopter.

Best of luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Disclosure: I am working with Warner Bros. and they are providing the prize; however all opinions are my own.

Last month I wrote about the wonderful California Wine Club here and about how much I loved the two bottles of artisan wine that were delivered to my home.

This month, I received another shipment from the California Wine Club which was a special holiday one! Exciting!

 It had two award-winning artisan wines wrapped lovingly and festively in metallic wrap, a beautiful wine tote and a folder with a $25 coupon for future purchases. 

Inside was also Uncorked, a magazine which fully explored the wines, the vineyard, different pairings and more. What a wonderful gift for the holidays!

This month’s selections were from the wonderful Daniel Gehrs vineyards in Santa Barbara County.

The White Hills Vineyard Chenin Blanc was delicious. Plums, pears, and wildflowers lent a not too sweet but enjoyable light and fruity taste. It had a really nice crispness. It is something I’d serve with fish, salad or chicken.

The Central Coast Merlot was quite different, but also something I really enjoyed more than most Merlots. It was full-bodied and earthy with notes of black cherry as well as hints of blueberry and cranberry. Perfect for serving with steak or prime rib or sipping by the fire this holiday season.

 So, if you are looking for a reasonably priced and unique gift this year, consider a membership to the California Wine Club. You can check them out at www.cawineclub.com.

 In addition, California Wine Club has been kind enough to offer one of my readers a chance to win a $50 credit to their website with which you can purchase and sample 2 of their artisan wines. 

US only please, 21 and over. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a 2 month Membership to the California Wine Club for the purpose of this review.

After Dark (Book One of the 19th Year)
By Emi Gayle

What eighteen year old Mac Thorne doesn’t know will probably kill her.

In exactly eight months, five days, three hours and thirteen minutes, Mac has to choose what she’ll be for the rest of her life.

She has no choice but to pick. As a Changeling, it’s her birthright. To Mac, it’s a birthchore. Like going to school with humans, interacting with humans, and pretending to be human during the pesky daylight hours.

Once darkness descends, Mac can change into any supernatural form that exists—which makes her as happy as she can be. That is, until Winn Thomas, the biggest geek in her senior class figures out there’s more to what hides in the dark than most are willing to acknowledge.

In this first of the 19th Year Trilogy, Winn might know more about Mac than even she does, and that knowledge could end their lives, unless Mac ensures the powers-that-be have no choice but to keep him around.

Excerpt

Endless screams. Maniacal laughter. The scent of prey.

Chills raced up my spine.

I wanted to run. To hide. To bury my head in the grave beneath me.

Instead, I balanced on top of Samuel L. Wilson, someone’s ‘beloved father and son resting in peace,’ craving solitude and stressing like a vampire on a blood fast.

Good ole ‘Sam’ decomposed underneath the largest oak in Primrose Cemetery—a spot no human would visit at night except on Halloween. A night that should have been mine.

Mine alone.

A gust of wind pushed my sketchpad to my knees, flung hair against my cheeks and sent my colored pencils tumbling. Wind, I could deal with. Humans? I’d rather not have had to. A swipe of my hand through the air brought the drawing tools back up. I yanked my hair into a tail, twisted the strands around a Cerulean blue pencil and stabbed random colors into the knot for safe keeping.

My frustration with human-kind had reached its pinnacle hours before but ratcheted even higher as someone rattled the gates, girls giggled and dares to enter the cemetery from crackly-voiced, chicken boys reached me.

I slapped my pencil to my papers, my forehead to my palm. “All I wanted was an hour of uninterrupted—”

The sharp end of something way larger than a pencil pierced my neck.

I straightened with one intake of breath, dropping the yellow, number-two from my fingertips. My hand reached toward the uninvited object as I seethed between clenched teeth.

“Hello, Mackenzie.” His deep bass resonated with the confidence of his kind: the not-human variety.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Whatever the tool, it pressed deeper into my flesh, and I itched to free myself from its penetrating hold.

“And once again, I have won the game before it began.”

“Only because you came up behind me.” A small orb of sunlight formed in the palm of my hand as I kept my neck as still as possible. With one toss, it zipped into the air above my head.

A pierced squeal emanated from behind me, and the point slid away.

Holy hell, that hurt! I jumped to the ground, somersaulted between Matilda Jane, Johann Rowe and the plastic flowers that lay between them. With another roll, James Peak’s extra large headstone concealed my entire form.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” The crunch of branches under footsteps gave his position away.

With a deep inhale, my body began its shift into a new form. My incisors elongated. Heart stopped. Eyes burned. On the exhale, strength, cunning and innate wit filled me, matching that of my attacker.

I stood with James as a shield. “Bring it on, old man.”

Book Trailer

Author Emi Gayle

Emi Gayle just wants to be young again. She lives vicariously through her youthful characters, while simultaneously acting as chief-Mom to her teenaged son and searching for a way to keep her two daughters from ever reaching the dreaded teen years.

Ironically, those years were some of Emi’s favorite times. She met the man of her dreams at 14, was engaged to him at 19, married him at 20 and she’s still in love with him to this day. She’ll never forget what it was like to fall in love at such a young age — emotions she wants everyone to feel.

Giveaway Details
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 12/13/12
*You need not enter your twitter name for each entry. Simply enter it for the first person you follow and leave the others blank.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent’s permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

How far would you go to save everything you ever loved?

Kaliel was warned about her love for the Ferryman. One day he will marry the land and leave Avristar forever. She doesn’t listen, and because of what she is– a Flame– one of nine apocalyptic weapons, she sparks a war. In a desperate attempt to save her home and her love, Kaliel tries to awaken Avred, not knowing she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Author Rhiannon Paille:

Rhi was never a normal girl. Her life was an urban fantasy wrapped in a paranormal romance and served with a side of horror. To escape her everyday weirdness she began writing fantasy. She studied at U of Sedona and MIMT, obtaining a PhD in Metaphysical Science and Parapsychology. She’s married to a chef/comic book shop owner and has a fondness for architecture.

Book Blast Giveaway:
$100 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 12/12/12

Winner:

Very Merry Box

With the holidays approaching, I’ve been trying to think of great gifts for family and friends, teachers and colleagues. A good place to check out is definitely Gift Baskets Plus. They have a huge selection of gift baskets to fit everyone in your life and at every price range.

I feel it’s really thoughtful when you tailor a gift basket to fit the person. I know those are some of my favorite presents!

So, does the person you know love Sports – There’s a basket for that. Do they love Ghirardelli or Godiva? Tea or coffee? Wine and cheese and gourmet foods, fruit or sweets? There’s a basket to fit everyone’s tastes.

I’m a big fan of the Sparkling Holiday basket

This beautifully packaged collection of savory snacks, fine wines, and sweet treats conveys style and taste. 

It Includes:

3 bottles of California wine:
(A chardonnay, a merlot and a cabernet sauvignon)
Cheese
Crackers
Almond Roca
Ghirardelli chocolate bar
Napa Valley mini mustard
Sonoma cheese straws
Sourdough snacks
Cashew crunch
Chocolate wafer rolls

Yum!

This Christmas Ales Basket would please even my picky brother-in-law!

Includes:

Christmas Ales
Cashew crunch
Smoked almonds
Chips
Butter toffee pretzels

Gift Baskets Plus has gourmet baskets, fruit baskets, romantic baskets, kosher baskets, movie baskets, candle baskets, spa baskets, sports baskets, baby baskets, organic gift baskets – honestly, just about anything you could ask for.

I love that I can tailor each basket to someone based on their interests rather than just sending the same to each one.

Of course, if you want a general basket, there are lots of those too!

No wonder their tagline is “happiness in a box”. So send or unwrap one today.  And use the coupon code 15OFF to get a 15% off holiday discount!