#NerdBlast: The Royal Order of Fighting Dragons by Dan Elish @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Praise for THE ROYAL ORDER OF FIGHTING DRAGONS

"…a fast-paced, entertaining story with appealing characters, a healthy dose of action, and a dash of humor." ―Publishers Weekly

Born to... Fight?

Ike Rupert Hollingsberry is haunted by the past because complete strangers won’t let him forget that his famous father died on the set of The Fighting Dragons, a cult favorite that still has people talking. But when he’s attacked by a large locust, like the one that killed his dad, Ike is helped by the geekiest nerd of all, Elmira Hand. Killing the giant locust is only the beginning of the surprises in store for Ike as he is whisked away from New York City to an isolated Florida compound to assume his role as the next in line to lead the Royal Order of Fighting Dragons—that are NOT supposed to exist—and learns his dad’s death was a cover-up for a far greater purpose…  

#TrailerBlast: JACLYN AND THE BEANSTALK by @MaryTing @JeanBookNerd

About the Book:

What fate awaits a girl who hears monsters at night…

Sixteen-year-old Jaclyn looks up to her father. An honest man who once fought for the king, he now teaches Jaclyn how to use her wits—and her sword.

But he has a secret. And his secret may have a connection to the one thing Jaclyn is hiding from him.   

Upon hearing “monsters” are terrorizing the small villages around Black Mountain, Jaclyn’s father and his friends head out to hunt them … but they don’t return.

Armed only with her sword and three magic beans—a gift from a mysterious old woman—Jaclyn sets out for Black Mountain to save her father. 

On her climb, one bean drops and grows into a beanstalk, catching her when she falls.

She isn’t the only one that takes the ride. Jack, her childhood friend and secret crush, is following her. 

Jaclyn and Jack will have to work together to save not only their fathers, but the townspeople the beasts plan to lay waste to before it’s too late.  

#BookTour: Select Few (Select #2) by @MaritWeisenberg @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

After rejecting the cult-like influence of her father's family, Julia moves into a fancy hotel in downtown Austin. 

But she finds herself alone except for her boyfriend, John--and her fears. Once again she's suppressing her abilities, afraid her family will come for John when they find out he's been developing abilities of his own in her presence. 

The FBI is also keeping a close eye on Julia hoping she can lead them to her father, Novak, as he's wanted for questioning in his former assistant's death.

With tensions high, Julia and John agree to go separate ways for the summer, paving the way for Julia to reunite with Angus, fellow outcast. 

Together they set out on a road trip to California to find Julia's mom and a way into Novak's secret underground world. Along the way Julia will learn the Puri perhaps aren't the only humans evolving into something different. . . and that maybe she's the leader her people have needed all along.

#BookTour: Death by the River by @alexandreaweis Lucas Astor @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway with @RiseOfTheReader

About the Book:

Some truths are better kept secret. 
Some secrets are better off dead. 

Along the banks of the Bogue Falaya River, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river.

And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux. 

The only child of a powerful family, Beau can do no wrong. Handsome. Charming. Intelligent. The star quarterback of the football team. The “prince” of St. Benedict is the ultimate catch. 

He is also a psychopath. 

A dirty family secret buried for years, Beau’s evil grows unchecked. In the shadows of the ruined St. Francis Abbey, he commits unspeakable acts on his victims and ensures their silence with threats and intimidation. Senior year, Beau sets his sights on his girlfriend’s headstrong twin sister, Leslie, who hates him. Everything he wants but cannot have, she will be his ultimate prize. 

As the victim toll mounts, it becomes crystal clear that someone has to stop Beau Devereaux. 

And that someone will pay with their life.

WARNING: Readers of Death by the River will encounter situations of violence and sexual abuse which could be upsetting.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here ...

#NerdBlast: EMBOLDEN by @syriejames & @rmjames @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Internationally bestselling author Syrie James and her son Ryan M. James bring their trademark drama, humor, action, romance, and suspense to Embolden, the second book in this critically acclaimed series.

The world is trying to tear them apart. 
Will they stand together and fight back? 

After a season of psychic visions and super-powered drama, Claire Brennan and her angel-gone-AWOL boyfriend Alec MacKenzie can finally be together. Under the protection of Claire’s grandmother, they are trying to lead a normal life, going to high school at Emerson Academy and hanging out with their friends. 

But jealous teenagers, vengeful enemies, the city’s new Watcher, and even the school play threaten to break them apart. Not to mention Claire’s surprising second power, which could sabotage the trust of everyone she holds dear. And just when they need to stick together, they finally get a lead on where Claire’s missing father might be. 

The threats, which come not only from without but also from within, will test the strength of Alec and Claire’s relationship. Is the love they share enough to keep them safe? If they want to stay together … can they learn to fight together?  

#NerdBlast: ORACLE OF DOOM by @DJMacHale @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Check out a book and read your future. . . . It’s another page-turning adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author D. J. MacHale!

Marcus is an agent of the Library, a place filled with tales that don’t have an ending. Puzzles that won’t be solved until Marcus and his friends step in to finish them. This time it’s their own stories at stake.

Theo just visited the Oracle Baz, an old amusement-park machine that spits out fortunes for the cost of a quarter. 

Fun, right? The only problem is, the oracle’s cheap predictions have been coming true . . . and Theo’s fortune says that life as he knows it will end on his fourteenth birthday! 

Plus, Lu’s cousin, who also went to the oracle, is missing.

Marcus knows where to find help for his friends–the Library. It turns out that the Oracle Baz was a real man who died in a fire long ago. 

Can a glimpse into the fortune-teller’s past change all their futures?  

#NerdBlast: LULU THE BROADWAY MOUSE by @Jenna_Gavigan @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Ratatouille meets Broadway in this charming new middle grade novel about a little mouse with big dreams. 

Lulu is a little girl with a very big dream: she wants to be on Broadway. She wants it more than anything in the world. As it happens, she lives in Broadway's Shubert Theatre; so achieving her dream shouldn't be too tricky, right?

 Wrong. Because the thing about Lulu? She's a little girl mouse.

When a human girl named Jayne joins the cast of the show at the Shubert as an understudy, Lulu becomes Jayne's guide through the world of her theatre and its wonderfully kooky cast and crew. 

Together, Jayne and Lulu learn that sometimes dreams turn out differently than we imagined; sometimes they come with terms and conditions (aka the company mean girl, Amanda). 

But sometimes, just when we've given up all hope, bigger and better dreams than we'd ever thought could come true, do.  

#NerdBlast: THE JOURNAL OF ANGELA ASHBY by @lkgg @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

I have great power.
That’s what she told me. The old fortune-teller at the school carnival.
I thought I was doing the right thing … with the magic journal she gave me. But nothing could prepare me for what happened next.
Or, for what I unleashed.

At a school carnival, a mysterious fortune-teller gives twelve-year-old Angela Ashby a journal and warns her to use it wisely. Nothing prepares Angela for the journal’s power—when she pours her heart onto its pages her desires come true.  

She tests the journal by conjuring a gnome, a unicorn, and a farting fairy and then uses it to stop the school bullies in their tracks. But the unintended consequences alienate her best friend and puts her favorite teacher in danger of losing her job.

After she shares her deepest desire of all—that her parents get back together—her adversary steals the journal, and Angela fears she will use it to bring mayhem to the entire school if she doesn’t get it back.  

#BookTour: FINCHOSAURUS by Gail Donovan @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

FINCHOSAURUS follows the adventures of Atticus Finch Martin, otherwise known as Finch. 

Finch’s dream is to uncover a dinosaur fossil and name a new species after himself—until he digs up a note in the fifth-grade class garden with the word HELP on it. 

He is determined to come to the aid of the mystery note-writer. 

But when the quest turns out to be harder than expected, Finch risks losing two things that he really wants—his best friend Noah, and a field trip to Dinosaur State Park.  

#NerdBlast: ARCHIVOS by @ArchivosStories @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

ARCHIVOS is story mapping and presentation application developed by Wonderthing Studios, designed to support storytellers in the creation and promotion of their story worlds.

HISTORY
Wonderthing Studios LLC was founded in January 2015 by David Robison to celebrate and foster the storytelling community in all its forms and facets. The studio develops multiple channels of engagement – from podcasts to board games to software – in order to support storytellers and provide tangible opportunities for the creative community to interact and share wisdom and experience.

ARCHIVOS has been in development for over a decade, built upon the idea of a visual representation of the network of interaction between story elements. It’s creator, David Robison, conceived a framework of documentation and relationship that would articulate the dynamics of a story setting more effectively than any wiki or blog. The application serves as both a development tool for narratives as well as a presentation framework for sharing those narratives.

THE STORY WEB
Explore the associations and connections between story elements with The Story Web. This interactive display allows you to analyze the networks of association in your story setting and navigate its length and breadth with a few clicks of the mouse!

THE LIVING MAP
Highlight the significant events and locations of your story world in the Living Map. Geography, city maps, floor plans can be showcased in this interactive and searchable display.

THE TIMELINE
Chronicle the significant events of your story world – from deep history to current events – and then explore the entire continuum on the Timeline! Zoom in to see days or zoom out encompass decades, ensuring continuity and consistency across your story setting.

#NerdBlast: The Lantern's Ember by @ColleenHouck @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Welcome to a world where nightmarish creatures reign supreme.

Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare. 

Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.

#NerdBlast: QUEEN OF KENOSHA by @hockeyplayer @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

About the Book:

Illustrated by Erica Chan

Queen of Kenosha is a graphic novel set in 1960s Greenwich Village during the height of the singer-songwriter scene – and mixed with a small team of patriots committed to stopping the establishment of the Fourth Reich.

In this first installment of the Thin Thinline Trilogy, the fiercely independent Nina Overstreet has an axe to grind. A talented singer-songwriter slogging her way through the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk music scene of 1963, the Queen of Kenosha, Wisconsin, realizes that standing on the cusp of stardom gets her little respect and barely a cup of coffee in New York City. 

It finally comes, but in a way she could have never imagined. A chance encounter with the mysterious Nick Ladd at a late-night gig spins her life in a different direction—one that becomes a daily balance between life and death, right and wrong. 

Nick recruits Nina to join him and a team of ex-FBI operatives in a clandestine agency to stop the establishment of the Fourth Reich by undercover Nazis in post-War America.

#TrailerBlast: DEATH BY THE RIVER by @alexandreaweis and Lucas Astor #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

About the Book:

A High School “American Psycho”

Some truths are better kept secret. 
Some secrets are better off dead. 

Along the banks of the Bogue Falaya River, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river.

And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux. 

The only child of a powerful family, Beau can do no wrong. Handsome. Charming. Intelligent. The star quarterback of the football team. The “prince” of St. Benedict is the ultimate catch. 

He is also a psychopath. 

A dirty family secret buried for years, Beau’s evil grows unchecked. In the shadows of the ruined St. Francis Abbey, he commits unspeakable acts on his victims and ensures their silence with threats and intimidation. Senior year, Beau sets his sights on his girlfriend’s headstrong twin sister, Leslie, who hates him. Everything he wants but cannot have, she will be his ultimate prize. 

As the victim toll mounts, it becomes crystal clear that someone has to stop Beau Devereaux. 

And that someone will pay with their life.

WARNING: Readers of Death by the River will encounter situations of violence and sexual abuse which could be upsetting.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here ..

#BookTour: When Elephants Fly by Nancy Richardson Fischer @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway #WhenElephantsFly #NetGalley

About the Book:

There are some battles worth fighting even if it means losing yourself.

T. Lily Decker is a high school senior with a twelve-year plan: avoid stress, drugs, alcohol and boyfriends, and take regular psych quizzes administered by her best friend, Sawyer, to make sure she's not developing schizophrenia.Genetics are not on Lily's side.

When she was seven, her mother, who had paranoid schizophrenia, tried to kill her. And a secret has revealed that Lily's odds are even worse than she thought. Still, there's a chance to avoid triggering the mental health condition, if Lily can live a careful life from ages eighteen to thirty, when schizophrenia most commonly manifests.

But when a newspaper internship results in Lily witnessing a mother elephant try to kill her three-week-old calf, Swifty, Lily can't abandon the story or the calf. With Swifty in danger of dying from grief, Lily must choose whether to risk everything, including her sanity and a first love, on a desperate road trip to save the calf's life, perhaps finding her own version of freedom along the way. 

#NerdBlast: PEET, THE CREATURE WITH BIG FEET by @Leo_Aquino_Art #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

About the Book:

Peet, the Creature with Big Feet is about a big footed creature that hides all day and night because he’s self conscious about what the other animals will think of him. 


Without giving away too many spoilers, Peet embarks on a journey of self discovery, meets a band of animals, faces his fears, and even confronts a forest fire. 

But most of all, he learns that it’s OK to be different.

#BookTour: A Heart in a Body in the World by @debcaletti #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

About the Book:

When everything has been taken from you, what else is there to do but run?

So that’s what Annabelle does—she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She’s not ready to think about the why yet, just the how—muscles burning, heart pumping, feet pounding the earth. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t outrun the tragedy from the past year, or the person—The Taker—that haunts her.

Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and two friends (her self-appointed publicity team), Annabelle becomes a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to the trauma from her past. Her cross-country run gains media attention and she is cheered on as she crosses state borders, and is even thrown a block party and given gifts. The support would be nice, if Annabelle could escape the guilt and the shame from what happened back home. They say it isn’t her fault, but she can’t feel the truth of that.

Through welcome and unwelcome distractions, she just keeps running, to the destination that awaits her. There, she’ll finally face what lies behind her—the miles and love and loss…and what is to come.

#NerdBlast: The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles, #2) by @laurieannforest #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

About the Book:

Elloren Gardner and her friends were only seeking to right a few wrongs, but their actions have propelled them straight into the ranks of the realm-wide Resistance against Gardnerian encroachment. As the Resistance struggles against the harsh rulings of High Priest Marcus Vogel and the Mage Council, Elloren begins to realize that none of the people she cares about will be safe if Gardneria seizes control of the Western Realm.

With tensions heating up in Verpacia, more and more Gardnerian soldiers continue to descend upon the university…led by none other than Lukas Grey, now commander of the newly rebuilt Fourth Division base. Though Elloren tries to keep him at arm’s length, Lukas is determined to wandfast to her, convinced that she has inherited her grandmother’s magic—the prophesied power of the Black Witch. As his very nearness seems to awaken a darkness inside her, Elloren finds it more and more difficult to believe that she’s truly powerless, as her uncle always claimed.

Caught between her growing feelings for the rebellious Yvan Guriel and the seductive power offered by Lukas Grey, Elloren must find a way to stay true to what she knows is right and protect everyone she loves…even if that means protecting them from herself.

#NerdBlast: THE WORLD OF ALUNA by @paulagarces1 #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

The World of Aluna, Issue 1 
(The World of Aluna #1)

Goodreads
WORLD OF ALUNA COMICS - SHOP

About the Book:

A conquistador, Francisco Cortes, interrupts a ritual in the jungles of South America and encounters the powerful Goddess – Pachamama. 

Back in Spain years later, his young daughter, Aluna, would rather spend her time fencing with her friend Antonio than take dancing lessons. 

When Francisco gives Aluna a strange green gemstone, she discovers that she has supernatural strength. 

But is this a blessing or a curse?

#NerdBlast: So Say We All by @markaaltman Edward Gross #Giveaway @JeanBookNerd

Genre: Non-Fiction

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

From the best-selling authors of the definitive two-volume Star Trek oral history, The Fifty-Year Mission, comes the complete, uncensored, unauthorized oral history of Battlestar Galactica.

Four decades after its groundbreaking debut, Battlestar Galactica -- both the 1978 original and its 2004 reimagining ? have captured the hearts of two generations of fans. What began as a three-hour made for TV movie inspired by the blockbuster success of Star Wars followed by a single season of legendary episodes, was transformed into one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved series in television history. And gathered exclusively in this volume are the incredible untold stories of both shows - as well as the much-maligned Galactica 1980.

For the first time ever, you will learn the uncensored, unbelievable true story of forty years of Battlestar Galactica as told by the teams that created a television legend in the words of over hundred cast, creators, crew, critics and executives who were there and brought it all to life. So Say We All!

#NerdBlast: The Missing (Shadow House #4) by Dan Poblocki @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

Shadow House never sleeps . . .
Five children have been lured into Shadow House, all for different reasons. None of them knows the others. And none of them knows what to do when they can't find a way back out.
But something is different inside the house. Someone -- or something -- is there with them, and seems to know more than they do. Only how are the kids supposed to decide if that someone is trying to help them . . . or trap them there forever?
Step into Shadow House.