#BookTour: A BLOOD OF KINGS by @LyrianRastler and @OConnorBooks @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Ryn has fallen. Ester could be dying. Bonner is too far away to help.

No matter how Declan Idrys looks at his situation, he comes to the same conclusion every time: He is about to die at the hands of the first dark elf seen in 700 years. Fate, fortunately, is not so cruel, though, and after barely surviving this initial encounter with the er’endehn of Eserysh, Declan and his friends find themselves in a tentative truce with the war-loving elves. They share a common enemy, after all, and their mutual hate for the Endless Queen and her growing legions is enough for the two groups to set aside their mistrust for one another, if only for now.

Sehranya, however, is not one to rest easy while her enemies join forces, and Declan and his companions soon find themselves assaulted by new horrors as they set out to make at last for the legendary city of Ysenden in truth.

But the queen has made a mistake. Within Declan the slumbering might of his line is at last stirring, prodded into life by the guiding hands of Bonner yr’Essel. Fire. Power. Strength. Sehranya will rue the day she did not throw everything she had into slaying the one of King’s blood....

Let award-winning voice artist Nick Podehl capture your imagination as you dive into the much-anticipated next installment of The Shattered Reigns, a best-selling fantasy series written by two authors at the top of their game.

#AudioTour: HE WHO FIGHTS WITH MONSTERS 2: A LitRPG Adventure by Shirtaloon @JeanBookNerd

The path from retail middle management to interdimensional wizard adventurer wasn’t easy, but Jason Asano is settling into his new life.

Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone, competing for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer.

While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Although Jason seems uninvolved, he has unknowingly crossed the enemy’s path before. Friends and foes made along the way will lead him to cross it again as inevitable conflict looms.

#BookTour: Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai #1) by @EJ_MELLOW @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

From the award-winning author of the Dreamland series comes a new dark romantic fantasy about a young woman finding hope in her powers of destruction.

The Thief Kingdom is a place hidden within the world of Aadlior. Many whisper of its existence, but few have found this place, where magic and pleasure abound. There, the mysterious Thief King reigns supreme with the help of the Mousai, a trio of revered and feared sorceresses.

Larkyra Bassette may be the youngest of the Mousai, but when she sings her voice has the power to slay monsters. When it’s discovered the Duke of Lachlan is siphoning a poisonous drug from the Thief Kingdom and using it to abuse his tenants, Larkyra is offered her first solo mission to stop the duke. Eager to prove herself, Larkyra accepts by posing as the duke’s potential bride. But her plans grow complicated when she finds herself drawn to Lord Darius Mekenna, Lachlan’s rightful heir. Soon she suspects Darius has his own motivations for ridding Lachlan of the corrupt duke. Larkyra and Darius must learn to trust each other if there is to be any hope of saving the people of Lachlan—and themselves.

Welcome to the world of Aadilor, where lords and ladies can be murderers and thieves, and the most alluring notes are often the deadliest. Dare to listen? 

#BookTour: THE TORCH THAT IGNITES THE STARS by @TaelienSalaris @JeanBookNerd

After concluding their first year at Lorian Heights, Corin and his friends catch a train from their native Valia to the distant country of Caelford.

For most, this would be a simple vacation. Corin has other plans:

• Meet Anabelle Farren, the eccentric owner of Farren Labs, and learn about artificial attunements.
• Seek out Warren Constantine, a previous Arbiter, for training and a potential alliance.
• Find the visage Ferras herself to seek a cure for Sera's condition.

Of course, Corin is Corin, and there's absolutely no chance he's going to be able to stick to a list. Even if he miraculously developed a sense of focus, he isn't the only one with plans....

The Blackstone Bandit. Everyone's favorite mysterious book entity. The aforementioned Farren. A vacationing professor. The mirror of a figure from Keras' past. When their plots intersect, Corin and his friends are, predictably, stuck at the center.

It's going to be a long vacation.

#NerdBlast: UNFORGOTTEN by @anitasilvey @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Explore the fascinating life and legacy of groundbreaking primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey, who made it her life's mission to study and protect mountain gorillas, in this powerful biography from award-winning author Anita Silvey.

In 1963, young American Dian Fossey spent all her savings and took out a loan to realize her dream--to go to Africa. It soon became her life's mission to study and protect the few mountain gorillas left on Earth. Fossey had no experience or formal scientific training, but she was smart, passionate, and strong-willed--and she just happened to meet paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who helped her pursue her goal of studying animals in the wild. Fossey set up a research camp and threw herself into tracking and observing mountain gorillas. Over the next 18 years, Fossey got closer to gorillas than any human ever had before. As she learned to mimic their behavior and became accepted by them, Fossey's studies grew into a labor of love and a mission to protect her beloved gorillas from poachers and other threats--no matter what the cost.

Sadly, Fossey was murdered at her camp in 1985, and to this day, her death remains a mystery. But her legacy lives on through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund: In 1973 Fossey recorded only 275 gorillas living in Volcanoes National Park; there are about twice that many today. Fossey's story is one of tragedy, but also passion, science, and preservation. As Jane Goodall, once said, "If Dian had not been there, there might be no mountain gorillas in Rwanda today." Unforgotten is the dramatic conclusion to Silvey's trilogy of biographies on Leakey's "Trimates." With unparalleled storytelling, sidebars, maps, and an award-winning design, Unforgotten will inspire the next generation of budding scientists and conservationists.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ National Geographic Kids (June 29, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1426371853
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1426371851

Praise for UNFORGOTTEN

Silvey deals honestly with Fossey’s internal battles, including alcohol reliance and emotional trauma, and her murder in 1985, but largely elides the myriad repercussions of her anti-poaching efforts. Employing lush, full-color photographs of gorillas and rainforest-covered mountains, and informative sidebars on related themes (e.g., the history of San Francisco, the Leakey family) this is a visually compelling, though limited, treatment of its subject. Includes a foreword by Ellen DeGeneres, extensive notes, maps, and suggested resources for further study. —Publishers Weekly

#BookTour: The Freedom Race (The Dreambird Chronicles #1) by @LRoyAuthor @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

The Freedom Race, Lucinda Roy’s explosive first foray into speculative fiction, is a poignant blend of subjugation, resistance, and hope.

In the aftermath of a cataclysmic civil war known as the Sequel, ideological divisions among the states have hardened. In the Homestead Territories, an alliance of plantation-inspired holdings, Black labor is imported from the Cradle, and Biracial “Muleseeds” are bred.

Raised in captivity on Planting 437, kitchen-seed Jellybean “Ji-ji” Lottermule knows there is only one way to escape. She must enter the annual Freedom Race as a runner.

Ji-ji and her friends must exhume a survival story rooted in the collective memory of a kidnapped people and conjure the voices of the dead to light their way home.

#BookTour: Sidewinders (The Fire Sacraments #2) by Robert V.S. Redick @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Two brothers flee an army of fanatics across a vast and magical desert in this white-knuckle sequel to Master Assassins from Robert V.S. Redick, author of The Red Wolf Conspiracy.

The worst of rivals, the closest of friends, the two most wanted men in a war-torn world: Kandri and Mektu Hinjuman have cheated death so often it’s begun to feel like a way of life. But nothing has prepared them for the danger and enchantment of the Ravenous Lands. This sprawling, lethal desert is the brothers’ last hope, for they have killed the favorite son of Her Radiance the Prophet, and her death-priests and magical servants are hunting them day and night.

But there are dangers even within their caravan. Some of their fellow travelers worship the Prophet in secret. Others, including Mektu, have become obsessed with a bejeweled dagger that seems to afflict its owners with madness or death.

At stake is far more than the lives of two runaway soldiers. Kandri is carrying an encoded cure for the World Plague, a disease that has raged for centuries—while far from the desert, certain criminals have learned just how lucrative a plague can be. Are they using the Prophet, or being used by her? Who, in this game of shadows, can Kandri trust?

He knows one thing, however: they must reach Kasralys, great and beautiful fortress-city of the east. Only there can the precious cure be deciphered. Only there can Kandri seek word of the lover who vanished one night without a trace.

But Kasralys, never conquered in 3,000 years, is about to face its greatest siege in history.

#NerdBlast: Kyle's Little Sister by BonHyung Jeong @JeanBookNerd

My name is Grace, not "Kyle's little sister!"

Having a good-looking, friendly, outgoing older brother sucks—especially when you're the total opposite, someone who likes staying home and playing video games. Your parents like him better (even if they deny it!), and everyone calls you "Kyle's little sister" while looking disappointed that you're not more like him. I was really hoping I'd get to go to a different middle school, but no such luck. At least I have my friends...until he finds a way to ruin that, too...! Argh! What do I have to do to get out of his shadow?!

#BookTour: Red Deception by @AuthorEdFuller @garygrossman1 @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Intelligence experts and thriller authors concur: Red Deception is “A page-turner by authors who might as well sit on the National Security Council.”

When terrorists bomb bridges across the country and threaten the Hoover Dam, the vulnerability of America's infrastructure becomes a matter of national security. But Dan Reilly, a former Army intelligence officer, predicted the attacks in a secret State Department report written years earlier—a virtual blueprint for disaster, somehow leaked and now in the hands of foreign operatives.

#BookTour: The Apocalypse Seven by @genedoucette @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whatever.

The whateverpocalypse. That’s what Touré, a twenty-something Cambridge coder, calls it after waking up one morning to find himself seemingly the only person left in the city. Once he finds Robbie and Carol, two equally disoriented Harvard freshmen, he realizes he isn’t alone, but the name sticks: Whateverpocalypse. But it doesn’t explain where everyone went. It doesn’t explain how the city became overgrown with vegetation in the space of a night. Or how wild animals with no fear of humans came to roam the streets.

Add freakish weather to the mix, swings of temperature that spawn tornadoes one minute and snowstorms the next, and it seems things can’t get much weirder. Yet even as a handful of new survivors appear—Paul, a preacher as quick with a gun as a Bible verse; Win, a young professional with a horse; Bethany, a thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent; and Ananda, an MIT astrophysics adjunct—life in Cambridge, Massachusetts gets stranger and stranger.

The self-styled Apocalypse Seven are tired of questions with no answers. Tired of being hunted by things seen and unseen. Now, armed with curiosity, desperation, a shotgun, and a bow, they become the hunters. And that’s when things truly get weird.

#BookTour: America by Mike Bond @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

A decade that transformed America

The Sixties shook America to its foundation – the assassination of an idealistic young president, a tragic and unpopular war, a battle for civil rights, a cosmic clash of riots and burning cities, and an explosion of sex, drugs and rock’n roll.

For four young people, the Sixties is a decade of promise and freedom. For orphaned Troy, it’s the joy of living with his new family and exploring the world of flight and outer space. For Tara, the girl he loves, the power of song as she evolves into a rock’n roll star. For his new brother, Mick, a football hero and rebel, a time to question everything, including the fast-growing war in Vietnam. And for Daisy, the girl Mick loves, a chance to fight for equality, join the Peace Corps, and expand her study of the human mind.

America is the first of Mike Bond’s seven-volume historical novel series, capturing the victories and heartbreaks of the last 70 years and of our nation’s most profound upheavals since the Civil War – a time that defined the end of the 20th Century and where we are today.

Through the wild, joyous, heartbroken and visionary lives of four young people and many others, the Sixties come alive again, as do its questions: what is life? What is freedom? What was lost, what was won?

#BookTour: (CON)science (Phoenix Horizon, #3) by @PJManney @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

PJ Manney concludes her visionary Philip K. Dick Award–nominated series of a world at war, a virtual search for identity, and the future of humanity.

Five years ago, bioengineer Peter Bernhardt spearheaded an innovation in nanotechnology that changed the course of evolution. Until everything was taken from him—his research, the people he loved, and finally his life. Uploaded as an artificial intelligence, Peter is alive again thanks to a critical reactivation by fellow AI Carter Potsdam.

But a third sentient computer program, Major Tom, is tearing the United States apart, destroying its leaders and its cities. Major Tom’s mission: rebuild a new America from the ruins and reign as uncontested monarch. Carter knows that only a revolutionary like Peter can reverse the damage to a country set on fire.

Caught in a virtual world between an alleged ally and an enemy, pieces of Peter’s former self remain: the need for vengeance, empathy for the subjugated people of a derelict world, and doubt in everything he’s been led to believe. To rescue what’s left, he’ll need to once again advance the notion of evolution and to expand the meaning of being human—by saving humanity.

#BookTour: How To Be A Badass Vigilante (How To Be A Badass Vigilante #1) by @MichaelAnderle @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Virtutis gloria merces

Translation: Glory is the reward of valor

When given power, what would you be willing to sacrifice for the greater good?

Fed up with playing the normal game, recent university graduate, ex-cum laude, ex-soccer star, ex-popular and mostly broke Kera MacDonagh changed her life when she read 'How to be a Badass Witch' and shockingly, the spells worked.

She barely made it out of the first few weeks of on-the-job training before her powers got her in trouble.

Hunted as a magical vigilante, the Kims sacrificed to keep her safe.

Kera hunts criminals in the darkness of LA, but will she be able to hide the signature of her powers, too?

Having made the decision to come clean with a boyfriend, she must now live with the results.

With everything happening, Kera is balancing her sanity as well. Will magic be enough to help her come out on top?

Of course, she hopes. Because the other way lies madness.

#NerdBlast: IT DOESN'T TAKE A GENIUS by @olugbemisola @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Emmett and his older brother Luke have always been "Batman and Robin," though they're quick to bicker about who's who. Spending the summer at a historic Black summer camp seems like a wonderful adventure for the two to share, but since Luke is there as a junior counselor, he seems to spend all of his time being everyone else's big brother, and ignoring Emmett.

As Luke seems to be moving on to new adventures, Emmett struggles in unexpected ways, especially in swim class and the "It Takes A Village" entrepreneurship class. Without his brother to turn to for support, Emmett works to build a new crew of "superfriends," who'll help him plan something spectacular for the end-of-camp awards night and celebration. Along the way, Emmett learns that no matter what, there can be many ways to define family.

#NerdBlast: You Were Made for Me by @JennaGuillaume @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

YA author Jenna Guillaume is back with a fun and modern feminist twist on the 1985 pop cult film Weird Science.

Sixteen-year-old Katie Camilleri can’t believe she’s accidentally created a teenage boy. A boy six-feet tall with floppy hair and eyes like the sky on a clear summer’s day. A boy whose lips taste like cookie dough and whose skin smells like springtime. A boy completely devoted to Katie. But silly musings and kitchen antics with her best friend, Libby, have definitely taken a whimsical twist into something bigger than Katie could have ever daydreamed. Turns out the consequences of fumbling a human being into existence are rather complicated. More importantly, does Guy, the golden Adonis Katie’s created, like her because he wants to, or because he has to? And will he be Katie’s very first kiss?

From the author of What I Like About Me comes a hilarious feminist twist on a classic narrative, loaded with laughs, mishaps, and plenty of 80s and 90s pop-culture callbacks. Jenna Guillaume’s entertaining romantic comedy novel features a humorous and relatable voice and will appeal to fans of Jenny Han.

#BookTour: Wild Open Faces (Wild And Ruin #2) by @JGEauthor @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

 

Surfaces are deceiving . . .

After falling for Ezra and discovering a gateway to the Otherworld, it’s a truism Ruby knows to take to heart. But La Luna finally feels like home, and with graduation just weeks away and a cushy internship on a nearby archeological dig in her pocket, it’s easy to downplay the strange new events taking place in the Glorieta Pass. Even when Angel’s deadbeat father reappears after twenty years, stirring up questions about Angel, the ruin, and Ruby’s mother.

#NerdBlast: Wild Open Faces by @JGEauthor @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Publisher : Bad Apple Books (December 17, 2020)
Language: : English
Paperback : 351 pages
ISBN-10 : 1733514015
ISBN-13 : 978-1733514019

Surfaces are deceiving . . .

After falling for Ezra and discovering a gateway to the Otherworld, it’s a truism Ruby knows to take to heart. But La Luna finally feels like home, and with graduation just weeks away and a cushy internship on a nearby archeological dig in her pocket, it’s easy to downplay the strange new events taking place in the Glorieta Pass. Even when Angel’s deadbeat father reappears after twenty years, stirring up questions about Angel, the ruin, and Ruby’s mother.

#BookTour: NOW BEFORE THE DARK by @SamHooker @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Time is running out for the Old Country.

How does one save a nation when the erstwhile gods are against the idea? In the finale of Terribly Serious Darkness, it's up to Sloot Peril--the world's greatest accountant and poorest everything else--to figure it out.

Unfortunately, he'll have help. A philosopher who'd sooner die (again) than do any real work, a bard who can't play his non-instrument, and a spooky wizard who's often mistaken for a vampire may not be ideal allies, but with any luck—which Sloot's never had—they'll occasionally get out of his way.

Does Sloot stand a chance against serpent cults, demons, dragons, and the most sinister financial report every written? Doubtful. If he's even going to survive the dance contest, he'll have to think of something now, before the Dark swallows everything up.

#NerdBlast: Girls Can!: Smash Stereotypes, Defy Expectations, and Make History! by @MarsinCharge @BlackMajiik

Girls Can!
Innovate! Discover! Create! Lead nations AND rule kingdoms.
Girls can change the world!

This book puts to rest the tired adages of things girls "can't" do with powerful proof that girls not only CAN, but they DO!

Featuring profiles of over 75 remarkable women from across centuries and around the world, from math whiz Katherine Johnson to legendary leaders like Queen Elizabeth I, game changers like Serena Williams to avant-garde artists like Frida Kahlo, and so many more, you'll discover amazing, diverse women, both famous and little-known, who smashed stereotypes, overcame odds, and achieved their goals.

With interviews and encouraging advice from world-changing women of today such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, philanthropist Melinda Gates, renowned journalist Christiane Amanpour, National Geographic explorers and planet protectors like Sylvia Earle, and more, as well as concrete tips for breaking barriers and raising your voice, this inspirational book will have you ready to follow in the footsteps of women who made-and are making-history.

#BookTour: Everything I Thought I Knew by @shannontakaoka @JeanBookNerd

A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste.

Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves—which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)

And that’s not all that’s strange. There’s also the vivid recurring nightmare about crashing a motorcycle in a tunnel and memories of people and places she doesn’t recognize.

Is there something wrong with her head now, too, or is there another explanation for what she’s experiencing?

As she searches for answers, and as her attraction to Kai intensifies, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew—about life, death, love, identity, and the true nature of reality.