The Time Will Come #84

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The Time Will Come - 

Every Thursday l am going to list a book which l really want to read/keep meaning to get to. These are mostly books which have been on my shelf for awhile now but don't have to be, maybe you got it two weeks ago and really want to read it! 

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Want to join in?

- Pick a book you have been meaning to read

- Do a post telling us about the book 

- Link the post up in the linky

- Visit the other blogs!

Dark Inside - Jeyn Roberts

I know, I know. I am crazy that I haven't read this book yet and I really should! 
I have heard many many great things about it and nothing negative (Although I am sure there is!). 
I really want to read this book, I have the second in the series too so this gives me even more reason to read it because I know Rage Within is sitting there waiting for me too.
If you have any reviews or thoughts on this book be sure to send them too me, whether they are good or bad!

The Blurb

Since the beginning of mankind, civilizations have fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs...and now us. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening: An ancient evil has been unleashed, and it's turning everyday people into hunters, killers, and crazies. This is the world Mason, Aries, Clementine, and Michael are living in--or rather, trying to survive. Each is fleeing unspeakable horror, from murderous chaos to brutal natural disasters, and each is traveling the same road in a world gone mad. Amid the throes of the apocalypse and clinging to love and meaning wherever it can be found, these four teens are on a journey into the heart of darkness--and to find each other and a place of safety.

Waiting on Wednesday #78

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Just One Day - Gayle Forman
Published : 8th January 2013
Publisher : Dutton Juvenile
I love Gayle, she is such an amazing author and I have been so looking forward to her next book! I didn't even need to read the blurb to know that I want to read this one and that I am waiting on it. I am sure it's going to be awesome. 
I have to admit that the blurb does make it sound that exciting but I am sure Gayle has made this book an emotional roller coaster road, or I am hoping at least!
Make sure to check this one out, looking forward to reviews!  

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The Blurb :

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance ofTwelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

*Review* - Kept by Shawntelle Madison

   Kept by Shawntelle Madison

Series : #2 Coveted

Released : 27th November 2012

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Format : Paperback

Source : Author (Thank you!)

Buy : Amazon Paperback (UK/USA)/Book Depository

Overall rating

 .................................... The Blurb  ....................................

Fresh from defending her pack in battle, Natalya Stravinsky, a whip-smart werewolf with a lovable neurotic streak, wants a little rest and relaxation. Once an outcast, she’s now eager to rejoin the ranks of her New Jersey pack, and has even gotten a handle on her obsessive urge to hoard holiday ornaments. Yet Nat barely has time to revel in her progress before the next crisis comes howling at her door.

Nat’s father has suddenly gone missing, captured by the Russian werewolf mafia. And as Nat steps up to save her dad from a mob boss’s deadly game, two men step in to play another round for her heart: her gorgeous alpha ex-boyfriend, Thorn, and her new flame, the sweetly sensitive wizard Nick. With her life growing more harried by the minute, Nat must stay cool, calm, and collected . . . or else risk losing everything.

 .................................... My Thoughts   ....................................

In Short

- Kept follows on nicely from Coveted (The first in the series)

- All the characters grew in Kept 

- Thorn is just ... <3

- Kept is such a unique paranormal book, you don't want to miss out!

In Long

Kept follows on nicely from the first book in the series, Coveted. However I found myself getting into Kept much quicker than Coveted. Everything seemed to move more quickly in Kept, the storyline constantly has something going on

All the characters grew in Kept which I really liked. I always think characters should never stop growing and Shawntelle made sure her characters continued to grow. I became even fonder of Nat in this book, she is such a strong character who deals with everything in the way she sees best, often putting herself last. Her character is such a realistic one because she does have her flaws but at the same time there is such much to like about her.

Thorn is so swoon worthy, he really keeps me guessing as to what his thinking which I love about male characters. His all mysterious and then he will suddenly open up but at the same time hold back from revealing everything. It definitely kept me guessing throughout the whole book. One moment I thought something then his next actions would make me think something different. It was like it’s own little storyline within itself.

Kept is such a different sort of paranormal book, I love how werewolves are the main paranormal creatures but there are also wizards, mermaids and many other paranormal creatures involved. It’s so interesting to see them altogether and how Shawntelle puts them into the storyline in a way which could make the storyline go in many different directions.

The ending is a great one, so much is still going on right up until the last sentence!! I could never predict the exact ending, although I thought it might end in a certain way I was never totally sure and I was definitely ‘on the edge of my seat’ throughout the book, especially the last 50 pages.

Final Thoughts

Kept is a great follow on from Coveted. I actually enjoyed Kept a bit more than Coveted which was a nice surprise because I didn't think I would after enjoying Coveted so much. I really recommend this series!! 

Guest Post - Deleted Scene from Zombie's Don't Cry + UK Giveaway

Please welcome Rusty to Books For Company. He has been very kind and provided us with a great deleted scene from Zombie's Don't Cry, an exclusive!

This has definitely made me put the book onto my wishlist. So much character comes through within this one scene! 

Don’t Forget the Dew! 

A “Deleted Scene” from Zombies Don’t Cry 

By Rusty Fischer, author of Zombies Don’t Cry 

So, I always love writing these “deleted scenes” from Zombies Don’t Cry. It’s been a few years since I wrote it, and it’s always neat to go back and try to sneak something new in with these scenes “from the cutting room floor”.
So, in honor of the book’s UK release in October, here is a scene that happens just before the book’s Prologue, while Maddy, the book’s main character, is doing a little last minute shopping before here “Zombie Picnic.”
I’m pretty excited about this deleted scene, and very grateful to Jodie for allowing me to debut it here, and only here, on the Books for Company blog. At any rate, I hope you enjoy it:
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I shut the passenger door and Dane leans over, hands bone white and clutching the steering wheel. “You’ve got the list?” he asks, gooey black zombie blood -- though it’s not really blood -- smeared on his chin. 
“Yes, I have the list!” Sheesh, he’s only asked me a dozen times since we pulled away from the dance.
“Okay, just checking.” He seems antsy, and I guess I can’t blame him. I take one step away from the truck and he pokes his head out one last time: “Don’t forget the Dew! It’s really important he has a little refreshment, you know, for when he wakes up.”
I look down at the list, scribbled onto the back of my Fall Formal invitation. “Yeah, it’s on here, I got it…”
I’m still grumbling when I walk into the Stop ‘N Go store on Lumpfish Lane. It’s not exactly a 7-11, if you know what I mean, which Dane thought would be best considering the fact that we’re now, officially, on the run.
An electronic “ding-dong-ding” chimes when I walk in and a sleepy cashier, a few years older than me, looks up from some magazine he’s reading on the sales counter.
He starts to nod. You can tell it’s something automatic he does every time he looks up to see somebody new, but about mid-nod he stops and his eyes get big. Like, real big; like, cartoon as big as saucers big.
“Uh… hi,” he mumbles, watching me grab a metal basket from a stack by the door.
“Hi yourself.” I don’t even know why I say it. It’s so stupid and corny, but it just blurts out, dry and husky in my new zombie voice.
I can tell he thinks it’s clownish, too, but he still watches me, eyes big with a capital “B,” as I shuffle around the store tossing items in my basket. You know, all the zombie reanimation essentials, like… plastic knives and forks, some plastic plates and paper napkins and, from the hardware section, a small hatchet, just in case.
I grab the Mountain Dew last, two six packs even though Dane said one would be plenty, but I’m thirsty and I know he will be, too. They’re cold in my hands, but not much colder than my skin.
I shuffle over to the counter and unload it all on top of the guy’s muscle car magazine. He frowns but, so what? His fault for not moving it faster. I mean, if he hadn’t been gawking at me the whole way over to the cash register, he could have moved it in plenty of time.
“Are you… okay?” he asks, not even trying to ring any of my stuff up yet. I shift my eyes to the left and see Dane’s face, white as a volleyball above the steering wheel, dark eyes glaring at me to hurry up from the parking lot.
“Who, me?” Another stupid croak out of my stupid mouth. Why am I suddenly talking like some stupid commercial for Match.com?
He smirks. He’s tall and thin, with red hair cropped short and a Star Wars shirt (of course it’s a Star Wars shirt), under his green and red Stop ‘N Go cashier apron.
He’s still not moving. “Why do you ask?”
“Why? Have you… have you seen yourself lately?”
I gasp, and suddenly, it all makes sense; his round eyes, his gaping jaw, his inability to move or ring up a single can of Mountain Dew.
I. Must. Look. Like. Complete. Ass!
I look down to see my torn prom dress, thick Zerker goo under my maroon nail polish, left pinky WAY out of joint and God, I can only imagine what my hair looks like!
Is he looking? At my hair? Oh God, he is. He is absolutely STARING at my hair! It must be flatter than one of Dad’s pancakes those rare Sunday mornings when he gets home early enough to fix me breakfast.
“I… well… I…” I have nothing to say. What should I say? That I’ve been so busy trying to save Barracuda Bay High School from a zombie infestation that I just didn’t have time to freshen up before running out for a little Mountain Dew?
“Let me guess,” he says, leaning in and throwing a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of Dane’s truck parked outside. “You and your boyfriend out there got in a little tussle and now you’re gonna whip him up something fancy to make up for it, am I right?”
The little TV on top of the rotating pretzel stand behind him flickers and a newscaster breaks into his mud wrestling program. The volume’s on low but with my new zombie hearing, the newscaster might as well be shouting as he says, “We interrupt the previously scheduled broadcast to bring you this special announcement. Reports are starting to filter in of a potential situation at tonight’s Fall Formal at one local high school, where for the last hour parents have been unable to reach their...”
I look down at the sales counter, frantic. Paper plates, a hatchet and soda pop? That’s this guy’s idea of a romantic makeup dinner?
“Yes, yes, absolutely. You must be psychic or something.” He smiles unironically, despite the irony dripping in my admittedly harsh voice.
He finally starts reaching for things, covering up the sound of the newscast with the ringing of the cash register and thank goodness the TV is behind him as they start showing photos of Barracuda Bay High, smoldering in the night.
I told Dane we should have waited until the funeral to grab this stuff, but he said we’d have to lay low for the next day or so and couldn’t chance it. Now, here I am, in my prom dress torn to shreds, strolling through the Stop ‘N Go like something straight out of a… a… zombie movie.
He rings up the soda, finally, and shoves everything in a big red and green bag, smiling. “Funny,” he says, leaving it out there, dangling, so I have to ask, “What is?”
“I drink this stuff when I have the flu, too.”
Then he looks at my face, pale and gray like wet cement, and smiles. I pay him with a rolled up twenty from my pretty clam shell prom purse and storm out the door, wondering how long it will be before they start showing my high school yearbook photo on the news and he thinks, “Hey, wasn’t that chick just in my store?!?!”

So there you have it, a scene that never made it into the book and that you can only find here, on the Books for Company blog! 

Thanks, Jodie, for hosting me and thanks to all of you for reading this. And I hope it will add to your enjoyment of the book if you ever get to read Zombies Don’t Cry! 

Yours in YA, 

Rusty 

About the Author 

Rusty Fischer is the author of Zombies Don’t Cry, as well as several other popular zombie books, including Panty Raid at Zombie High, Detention of the Living Dead and the Reanimated Readz series of 99-cent living dead shorts. 

Rusty runs the popular website Zombies Don’t Blog @ www.zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com. At Zombies Don’t Blog you can read more about Rusty’s work, view his upcoming book covers and read – or download – completely FREE books & stories about… zombies! 

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Giveaway Copy of Zombie's Don't Cry
Rules :
UK Only
Ends 18th December

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Guest Post - Faith Mckay on Becoming a Strong Female Character

Please welcome Faith McKay to Books for Company. Faith is a debut author of Prophecy Girl. 

Faith has written a great guest post for us, one which had me thinking about a subject I haven't thought that deep into but this post has made me explore my opinions. 

Becoming a Strong Female Character by Faith Mckay

What does it mean to be strong? What does it mean to be weak? This is a big theme in my novel, Prophecy Girl.
I read a lot of book reviews that debate the strength of female characters in particular. A lot of people are sick of weak female characters. I get stuck on this when reading because I can relate to the characters who gets walked on, but I would also like to see more examples of strength. The thing is, though, while I admire them and wish I was them, I'm not as cool as those kick butt heroines who seem to just be strong and confident. I mean, Hermione Granger? Oh my god, she kicks so much butt! I really related to her with her big hair and love of books, and constantly wished I was as cool and strong as her. When in doubt, ask yourself, What Would Hermione Do? The answer is always: something smart and strong and awesome. She gave me something to strive to be, and that is so valuable.

In Prophecy Girl, Sam is a little bit different. Sam starts out in Prophecy Girl a victim. She's a victim of child abuse, she's a victim of bullying, and she definitely feels it's all her fault.
I worry a lot that people will read her thoughts on what's happening to her, and think that I am saying it's her fault. What is happening to her is not her fault. Of course it's not her fault! If someone is bullying you, if someone is abusing you, that's on them—not you.
But Sam doesn't do anything about her situation. The lesson she has learned, from years of abuse, is that she needs to just survive. If people are spitting on you? You make yourself small and wait for it to end.
Slowly, throughout Prophecy Girl, we watch Sam learn to stand up.
While writing Prophecy Girl, and watching the things Sam did, it gave me a lot to think about in terms of how we learn to become strong people, strong characters. Sam can't stand up for herself with her mother—but whenever her mother makes any kind of move toward her little sister, Sam stands up. It's easier to be strong defending other people than ourselves—and I think this is because Sam doesn't feel like she's worth much, but she knows her little sister is worth stepping in for.
We see Sam stand up for her sister, and we also see Sam stand up in anger. And while these things are examples of strength in the moment, it made me wonder what ends up driving us to be stronger characters overall? What drives us to stand up and be amazing kick butt heroines?
I think the answer is in feeling like we're worth doing that for. In knowing that we don't deserve to be spit on, in knowing that we deserve respect, that we are worth the strength it takes to stand up for ourselves.
When you grow up in an environment that doesn't breed that into you, you have to somehow find that in yourself. And that is what Sam's story arc is all about in Prophecy Girl. What will it take for her to stand up? What will it take for her to be strong? What will it take for her to make the leap from victim to survivor?
There isn't a simple answer to this, of course. If there was, we'd all be kick butt heroines like Hermione Granger. There are over 90,000 words exploring the idea in Prophecy Girl, and I still have more thoughts on the subject. For example now, being strong versus just feeling strong? That's a subject for another book. Or two. :)

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