Showing posts with label A.M. Hargrove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.M. Hargrove. Show all posts

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Cover Reveal: Determinant by A.M. Hargrove

Alright ladies and gentlemen.  You've seen my feature on the Guardians of Vesturon, well, there is a new book coming out in that series, book three! Determinant, and it will be coming out at the end of this month, June 30, 2012! YAY! So, onto the reason we are here...the revealing of the COVER of Determinant! YAY!

  • Series: Guardians of Vesturon
  • Genre: YA Paranormal Romance (with Sci-Fi Element)
  • Heat: HOT!



Isn't that an awesome cover?! I mean really?

Determinant blurb: January St. Davis, on her own since the age of sixteen and struggling to stay in college, thinks she’s scored in a major way when she lands a paid summer internship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  One evening, after working an especially long shift, a chance encouter with a group of mysterious men alters the course of her life.  


Rykerian Yarrister, a Guardian of Vesturon with unearthly powers and impossibly gorgeous looks, finds himself at odds over the human female he recently saved from certain death.  When it seems he is on the verge of winning her over, she is ripped from his hands by a strange and powerful being, threatening to destroy her if his demands are not met.

Do Rykerian and the Guardians have the ability to meet this fierce barbarian’s ultimatums, or will January suffer a horrid demise?

Excerpt of Determinant

I was lost in the events of the day and the amount of work I had and I was still nursing my wounded ego as I headed out of the lab.  As I made my way down the corridor, I noticed six men advancing toward me. 
It wasn’t their actions I noticed so much or even the way they walked.  And though it was an oddity for them to even be here at all, it was their attire that captured my attention.  They were dressed identically, in an extreme fashion, much like members of a gang or secret society.  Large and muscular, they wore black vests and their bare arms were almost completely tattooed with tribal symbols of a sort.  Metal bands criss-crossed their chests and their legs were tightly encased in leather.  Knee high boots and black gloves finished off their ensembles. 
As I neared them I felt my flesh tingle and the hairs on the back of my neck come to attention.  Gooseflesh erupted and alarms started clanging in my head.  I sucked in my breath and as I did, my eyes connected with the apparent leader.  I say this because he was in the front of the formation as they plodded along.
Time stood still as our eyes connected.  His were an uncanny shade, lavender with hints of indigo and specks of silver.  It was a hue I was unfamiliar with but they were intriguing and fascinating.  The alarms were still ringing in my ears and the air felt electrically charged around us. 
“Halt!”
I turned into stone.  I couldn’t move a muscle.  He cocked his head as his eyes bore into mine. 
“Breathe!”
I distinctly heard his command in my mind and I was helpless to disobey him.  I felt myself take a deep cleansing breath.  I questioned him with my eyes.  He flicked his head toward his men and they stepped back several feet.
“Who are you? Why are you here?”
I was confused by the demanding questions swirling in my brain but felt compelled to answer him.  I had never used mind reading to communicate, but I was sure he would hear my answer.
“I’m January St. Davis.  I’m here working on an internship for college credit.”
“You are human?” he asked with incredulity.
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that.  Why would he want to know if I was human?  What a ridiculous question!

ABOUT A.M. HARGROVE


One day, on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. M. Hargrove, realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn't do something soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life.  So, she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase.  Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodgeball pro and had über quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head.  Feeling a tad guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what lap top out the window.   She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone and hit #4 on her speed dial.

A.M.’s Boss:  Hello.
        A.M:  Hey Boss, I'm calling to let you know you can pick up my luxury Ford Focus at Starbucks near the interstate.
A.M.’s Boss:  Why ever would I want to do that?
A.M.:  Because I quit!
                            A.M. hit the end button and speed dialed her husband.

A.M.:  Hey hubs, can you pick me up at Starbucks?
A.M.’s Hubs:  Sure...having some car trouble?
A.M.:  Not at all.  I don't have a car to have trouble with because I just quit my job.
A.M.’s Hubs:  WHAT?!
A.M.:  It's time for a new career and I am going to be a very famous novelist.

So began A. M. Hargrove's career as a young adult paranormal romance author of self-published ebooks.  Her series, The Guardians of Vesturon, centers around a family of six siblings and is a mix of humor, mystery, suspense and of course, love.  Survival and Resurrection are her first and second full length novels, and Beginnings is her prequel novella to the series.  Determinant, her third in the series will be released 6/30/12.
(It didn’t really happen like that, but you get the idea!)


WHERE YOU CAN FIND DETERMINANT AND A.M. HARGROVE
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/JwH3yf

A.M. Hargrove's Blog: http://www.amhargrove.blogspot.com

This stop on the Determinant Cover Reveal Blog Tour was made possible by the A.M. Hargrove Fan club on Goodreads.com.  I am glad I got a chance to participate and highly recommend this series to any and all YA book lovers.  

Feature Friday: Guardians of Vesturon Series

Hey everyone! Welcome to today's Feature Friday.  Yeah, I like names for my features especially when I do them like this.  Today I will be focusing solely on the A.M. Hargrove series The Guardians of Vesturon.  As of right now, this series has three books: 

  1. Beginnings: Prequal to the Guardians of Vesturon
  2. Survival
  3. Resurrection
These books are fantastic, and you can find most at least two of them for free at a couple of different locations: Amazon.com and Smashwords.com.  The third one is relatively cheap, and it is WELL worth the purchase price.  Why am I focusing solely upon this series today, well it goes hand in hand with a post I've got coming tomorrow! If you've been following it, currently there is a cover release tour for the next book in the Guardians of Vesutron series, and I will be revealing that here tomorrow. However, there will be reviews of the first three books in this series, as well as my favorite picture from the A.M. Hargrove Fan Group on Goodreads.com, in the "What does your Guardian look like?" thread.  So, look out for the eye candy coming up in a bit. 


Blurb: You met the Guardians of Vesturon in Survival and Resurrection. Now read about how their parents, Rowan and Annalise met in Beginnings, the novella Prequel to The Guardians of Vesturon. Learn more about Rowan and how Annalise unwittingly captured his heart and how his chance meeting of her took him on a journey of forbidden love.

This is a fantastic introduction to this series, providing some back story to Rowan and Annalise's relationship.  This is Ryan Yarristar's history, how his parents met and fell in love.  Annalise worked in the cafeteria and Rowan fell in love with her, he had to save her.  However, being heir to the leadership of Vesturon, Rowan is forbidden to mate with a woman beneath his station and Annalise most certainly is below his station as she is a member of the working class.  Review: Beginnings: Prequel to The Guardians of Vesturon


Blurb: "Maybe I was caught between the two worlds. I was having serious trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality."

While on a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, nineteen-year-old Maddie Pearce finds her world has been thrown into a vortex and is madly spinning toward the impossible. Abducted by a mad psychopath, Maddie narrowly escapes with her life. But that is only the beginning. Her mysterious rescuer introduces her to a world that Maddie has difficulty accepting as reality. Will this strikingly gorgeous stranger be the key to her future or will she return to her mundane world, scarred from her experience? Follow Maddie as she is forced to make difficult decisions that carry her to mysterious places.



Book one of the Guardians of Vesturon starts us off into the story of Maddie, who has been abducted by a psychopath, and narrowly escapes.  However, things will not be going back to normal, considering her mysterious rescuer has now introduced her to a world that she can't quite wrap her head around and accept it as reality.  Can Maddie return to the mundane world knowing what she currently knows, and what role does this mysterious stranger hold for her future?  Review: Survival by A.M. Hargrove


Blurb: Rayn Yarrister, the first-born son and Leader of The Guardians, has been imprisoned on Vesturon for breaking their most sacred of covenants. He is suddenly jolted by Maddie's telepathic pleas for help, as her life hangs in the balance. Can he alert The Guardians in time to save his soulmate? Or will he face his trial alone and broken without his one true love? 
In Resurrection (Book 2), The Guardians of Vesturon are facing their biggest challenges as Earth is threatened by an invading species from a distant planet intent on destroying it for its resources. The Guardians, as protectors of the universe, have been assembled to defend not only Earth, but other vulnerable worlds as well. The Yarrister family is threatened by an unknown entity intent on discrediting them. Will they uncover this plot in time to save themselves from ruin? Will The Guardians succeed in stopping the Xanthians, or will Earth be invaded and ravaged by this marauding species?

This is the second (or third depending on how you look at it) book in the Guardians of Vesturon series by A.M. Hargrove, and is just as epic as those that came before it.  There is more Rayn and more Maddie and did I mention more Rayn? Things of course go from bad to worse, what with Earth being threatened by an invading species intent on destroying it for resources.  Guardians now must be assembled to defend Earth but other worlds as well.  Oh, and there is also a threat against the Yarrister family as well, so what's going to happen? Review: Resurrection by A.M. Hargrove

Now, I promised you eye-candy, and you shall have eye candy! These are some of the images that portray "What our Guardian looks like..."

 


These images were gathered from sources around the world wide web, and I do not hold any of the copyrights to these images.  All are sourced to their original owners.  The model in images one and four is Jesse Pavelka, and is omg smoking hot.  



Review: Resurrection by A.M. Hargrove


Title: Resurrection (The Guardians of Vesturon #2)
Author: A.M. Hargrove
Rating:  5/5

Summary:   Earth is being threatened by an alien species, threatening to destroy the planet for its resources.  Also, there has been someone trying to bring the Yarrister family to ruin.  Will they be discredited or will they uncover the plot?  More importantly will Earth be saved?


Review:   This is the second book in this series and I fell in love all over again with these characters.  The progression was something that I loved and the way that the characters came together.  The flow was very natural and organic.  Resurrection picked up right where the first book, Survival, left off.  Maddie needed help, she was seriously injured and the only way to help was to again break all the rules and bring her to Vesturon to be healed.
A.M. Hargrove’s skill at world building is something I absolutely adore, because we get to see more of Vesturon, Rayn’s home. The descriptiveness of the world makes me want to be able to go there and experience the richness of the world myself.  It is such a wonderful place and the overall descriptiveness of the book is something that I enjoyed.
I loved the fact that the character growth continued through this book, and everyone that I loved came back in this book to continue to grow through the different struggles and learn more about themselves.  Also, I adored the fact that the relationship between Maddie and Rayn was not rushed, but allowed to grow naturally and that you could actually feel the connection between them. 
Definitely enough action to keep you entertained and most definitely going to leave you wanting more!

If you have any questions, comments or recommendations you can contact me at simplicity.kindreth@gmail.com
My reviews can be found here:
http://www.caedyslibrary.blogspot.com
http://www.tumblr.com/caedy
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/caesreviews

Friday, June 22, 2012

Review: Survival by A.M. Hargrove


Title: Survival (The Guardians of Vesturon #1)
Author: A.M. Hargrove
Rating:  5/5

Summary:   Nineteen-year-old Maddie is abducted by a psychopath, and manages to narrowly escape with her life.  However, her rescuer is an enigma, and opens up Maddie to a world that she has trouble accepting as reality.  She then has some choices to make, to return to the mundane world, or to follow this mysterious stranger who may have some key to her future.


Review:    This book is by far one of my favorites, and it is so full of emotions.  I laughed and cried and laughed again.  It also helps that there are some swoon-worthy sexy men in this story (Rayn and his brothers).  With the amount of well thought out characters in this book, A.M. Hargrove, did an epic job of ensuring that we knew who was speaking and when, especially during the final scenes of this book when the point of view constantly jumped around. 
I fell in love with Maddie as a female lead, she is fun and carefree, but she has her own skeletons to deal with – the death of her parents and keeping her emotions bottled up instead of talking about them. She is one of those characters that are easy to like, however, there were a few inconsistancies with her that I was able to get past for the most part. 

Rayn, how could you not fall in love with him?!  He is sweet and caring and pretty much everything that a girl could want.  I love reading his point of view, his love for Maddie and the conflict that it creates in him, and yet you still know that he would do anything for her.

The different points of view was well managed, and the transitions between the points of view was handled in such a way that there was no confusion. One of my biggest issues was the initial switch from Maddie to Rayn and we had to once more experience everything all over again but from a different perspective.  It however, did nothing ot chance the story or give us new information other than further show us Rayn’s feelings for Maddie, which didn’t need quite so far a trip back in time. 

I have to bow down to A.M. Hargrove for her absolutely wonderful imagery.  The descriptions of the scenery, mountains, and etc, was so very beautiful, and it made me wish that I was there.  The creation of this world made me want to hike again and there is no such place here where I could adequately hike and emerse myself in something as vivid as this world that she’d created.  Her writing style, is definitely one that I enjoyed and kept the flow of the story done quite well.  In truth the only issue I had with this book was the cliff-hanger ending! Seirously?! GAH!

If you have any questions, comments or recommendations you can contact me at simplicity.kindreth@gmail.com
My reviews can be found here:
http://www.caedyslibrary.blogspot.com
http://www.tumblr.com/caedy
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/caesreviews

Review: Beginnings: Prequel to The Guardians of Vesturon


Title: Beginnings: Prequel to The Guardians of Vesturon
Author: A.M. Hargrove
Rating:  5/5

Summary:  Annalise is a member of the working class.  She works in the cafeteria.  Rowan, soon to be leader of Vesturon sees her and falls in love with her.  However, since she is beneath his station he is not permitted to marry her.  This is a fantastic love story that tells the story of Rowan and Annalise parents to Rayn Yarrister.


Review:  This is a heart-felt love story.  Telling the story of how Rowan and Annalise, parents to Rayn Yarrister met.  This is a story of individuals who conquer society’s boundaries, fall in love and ultimately create a family.  It is a fantastic prequel to Survival and Resurrection, the next two books in the Guardians of Vesturon series.  This story inspires hope in fairytale type love, that when you find the right person for you, you will be willing to do anything and everything within your power to be with that person. 

If you have any questions, comments or recommendations you can contact me at simplicity.kindreth@gmail.com
My reviews can be found here:
http://www.caedyslibrary.blogspot.com
http://www.tumblr.com/caedy
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/caesreviews

Monday, June 18, 2012

Good Evening...

Ugh! Today could have ended better for me..in so much that my desktop could be functioning (or at least clinging to its last traces of life) a lot better than it currently is.  Letting it cool and come down from its current tempertantruming over night and probably most of tomorrow while I am at work, and we shall see what happens then. But, it should NOT influence anything I've planned here.  Tomorrow shall be an epic day here at Confessions of a Bibliophile...why you ask? Well, let me tell you...

There is this EPICALLY AWESOME series written by A.M. Hargrove called The Guardians of Vesturion, and I've read all the books to date, and will be reviewing them tomorrow, as well as showcasing a couple of uber hot guys, that will make you think very, very indecent thoughts (if you are amongst my female followers, and probably make you jealous if you are amongst the male counter parts).  That segment is going to be titled "What does your Guardian look like..." and I took it off the A.M. Hargrove Fan Club page on Goodreads.com.  It is AWESOME, and the boys are delicious.

So, look for the reviews and special showcase to A.M. Hargrove's Guardians of Vesturion series...from prequel to book 2.  Speaking of A.M. Hargrove, there will be another EPICALLY awesome event concerning her coming up on the 23rd of June...so if you aren't paying attention you will miss it! Seriously!

Right now, I am working on my netbook, which doesn't have near everything I need on it, but it will still function and get everything on it that I will need to get things done.  The only thing I haven't installed on it is Adobe Digital Editions and Kindle for PC (and I might get around to it to finish Tigana and the galleies that I have to read)...though I'm still considering lemming it on Tigana (and we all know that isn't something that I do unless I absolutely cannot finish a book.  Tigana hasn't gotten that far for me yet).

What else is going on here? Oh! I won a free copy of Crimson Midnight by Amos Cassidy, and I will eventually get around to reading that.  I also have half a dozen other thing that I am needing to get around to reading...and I've also got reviews that I've done that I need to repost on Smashwords because stupid me forgot to post them over there and now Smashwords is pestering me about a review.  I also need to remember to format them properly so that they don't look disgusting when I post them.  Beyond that, I've still got a bunch of stuff to get done, that I've been horribly behind on (in case you haven't seen my reviews that need to be completed, and the more I read the longer the list gets...UGH!).

Galley Galore 3.0 will also be coming out this week, as will another small Author Read & Review corner.  The only other event that I've got coming up will be something involving Amos Cassidy, but that won't be until August.  Also, in August I will be able to post the epic awesomeness that is the review for one of the gallies that I've read.  I think I've also got one that I can post in July...I will have to check my calendar (which I need a new one of) and also double check publisher requirements on Netgalley.  I feel like I'm rambling, I really do, but this is stuff that I need to get out and need to ensure that I have all in one place...and it was also a vent concerning my computer being a party pooper and throwing a tempertantrum.  I really need a new computer and a new kindle damn it.  *sniffle*

Alright, I think I'm done with this update for the time being. I will possibly add more if I think of anything, but as of right now, I've been up since 3 am and it is closing in on my bedtime, and God knows that I need my beauty sleep.  Also, made some epic tastiness tonight, and you may just see it show up on the next bibliophile eats...unless I decide to do something else.

Lots of love,
Caedy :P