The Earthquake Machine

The Earthquake Machine
by Mary Pauline Lowry


Mary Pauline Lowry offers up an action filled, brilliant debut novel that takes the reader on one WILD ride!  ...and she pulls from her varied background to develop her characters and storyline.


The Earthquake Machine is the story of a very unhappy 14 year old Rhonda who "escapes" her painful home life to find the one person in her life that she has been able to rely on...Jesus, the family gardener.  Her adventure takes her south of the border and teaches her the value of the people that surround you and illustrates the inequities that exsist between traveling as a young girl versus as a young girl...while also sxposing the reader to Mexico's historically exotic culture.


The story moves well and the charachters will draw you in...from the delightful 14 year old Rhonda who has assumed the blame for he Mother's insanity; her abusive Father; the drug adled Bartender who manages to become a key part of Rhondas travels; to the tender and supportive Jesus and his Mama.


Exploring topics of Mexican and American Culture and Norms along with the obvious "coming of age" issues that any story of a 14 year old will...this is a book that I highly recommend.


Thank you to the author for providing a review copy of The Earthquake Machine.

#BookTrailerThursdays: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Book Trailer Thursdays!
To participate, post an entry in your blog on Thursdays with an embedded book trailer of your choice (note: the trailer can be fan made but please no movie trailers of book adaptations) with your thoughts and comments underneath. It can be a book you have read, want to read or have never even come across before.

This week we present... "Insurgent" the sequel to Veronica Roth's Blockbuster "Divergent"!



INSURGENT is the much-anticipated sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling DIVERGENT.

ABOUT INSURGENT:
One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. 

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so. 

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature. 

Join the #DivergentNation at http://www.facebook.com/divergentseries 

Order your copy today:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/H21jGu 
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/H8E65h 
Books-A-Million: http://bit.ly/Hy1PLb 
iBookstore: http://bit.ly/H0uy9e
IndieBound: http://bit.ly/Hy28Wy

...and I couldn't resist adding this cool Thank You from the author!



Thank you, Divergent Nation, for making both DIVERGENT and INSURGENT #1 New York Times bestsellers!

For more information on INSURGENT, visit:http://harperteen.com/books/Insurgent-Veronica-Roth/?isbn=9780062024046
For more information on DIVERGENT, visit:http://harperteen.com/books/Divergent-Veronica-Roth/?isbn=9780062024039

Join the Divergent Nation at http://facebook.com/divergentseries

#TeaserTuesdays - The Fairytale Keeper

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. 
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:  
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My May 1st Teaser is from:

The Fairytale Keeper
...avenging the queen


by Andrea Cefalo


Chapter: 18 March, 1248
Page: 147


"Better wake up, boy," a hoarse voice orders as the breeze of a large object sweeps past my cheek, smacks the wall next to me, and lands like a thud. My hazy eyes flash open and I shoot up violently from the unfamiliar bed. The room is a blurry brown smudge and I try to quickly rub the sleep from my eyes.

"I said, get, up boy! the voice commands and my vision clears in just enough time to see the second boot fly at me right before it slams into the side of my face.

#BookTrailerThursday - Fear (Gone #5) by Michael Grant

#BookTrailerThursday!  

To participate:
Post an entry in your blog on Thursdays with an embedded book trailer of your choice (note: the trailer can be fan made but please no movie trailers of book adaptations) with your thoughts and comments underneath. 
It can be a book you have read, want to read or have never even come across before.
(not sure who started this meme - let me know and I'll give credit)


This week I am not posting a book trailer - but I found this great chat with Michael Grant author of GONE!





Via HarperTeen:


FEAR, the fifth book in the bestselling GONE series, is on sale now! Order your copy today:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/GAECq8
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/GBcGR3
Books-a-Million: http://bit.ly/GCW8bJ
iBookstore: http://bit.ly/GAQZDC 
IndieBound: http://bit.ly/GAWlCa

For more information, visit http://www.harperteen.com/gone or join the conversation at http://www.facebook.com/gonebooks.

About the Book: It's been one year since all the adults disappeared. Gone. Despite the hunger and the lies, even despite the plague, the kids of Perdido Beach are determined to survive. Creeping into the tenuous new world they've built, though, is perhaps the worst incarnation yet of the enemy known as the Darkness: fear.

Within the FAYZ, life breaks down while the Darkness takes over, literally—turning the dome-world of the FAYZ entirely black. In darkness, the worst fears of all emerge, and the cruelest of intentions are carried out. But even in their darkest moments, the inhabitants of the FAYZ maintain a will to survive and a desire to take care of the others in their ravaged band that endures, no matter what the cost.

Fear, Michael Grant's fifth book in the bestselling dystopian Gone series, will thrill readers . . . even as it terrifies them.

#BookTrailerThursday - The Lure of Shapinsay

#BookTrailerThursday!  

To participate, post an entry in your blog on Thursdays with an embedded book trailer of your choice (note: the trailer can be fan made but please no movie trailers of book adaptations) with your thoughts and comments underneath. It can be a book you have read, want to read or have never even come across before.
(not sure who started this meme - let me know and I'll give credit)


This week from the author of The Lure of Shapinsay, Krista Holle:


"Here's a bit about me: I'm an indie author who published her first e-novel this past December called The Lure of Shapinsay.  It’s soon to be released as paperback.  It's a unique paranormal romance dealing with the very old Scottish mythology of the selkies.  

Ever since Kait Swanney could remember, the old crones of the village have been warning her to stay away from the selkies. They claim that like sirens of old, the seal men creep from the inky waters, shed their skins, and entice women to their deaths beneath the North Sea. But avoiding an encounter becomes impossible when Kait is spotted at the water’s edge, moments after the murder of a half-selkie infant. 

Kait is woken unexpectedly by a beautiful selkie man seeking revenge. After she declares her innocence, the intruder darts into the night, but not before inadvertently bewitching her with an overpowering lure. 

She obsesses over a reunion deep beneath the bay and risks her own life to be reunited with her selkie. But when she lands the dangerous lover, the chaos that follows leaves Kait little time to wonder—is it love setting her on fire or has she simply been lured?"

Sounds GREAT can't wait to get my hands on this one for a review!

#TeaserTuesdays - CHOMP!

“Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 
• Grab your current read 
• Open to a random page 
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!”

Chomp 
by Carl Hiaasen

Pg. 175

“The pain was so piercing he forgot about the lights and cameras and how ridiculous he must look on videotape with a flapping varmint attached to his face. Immediately he grew weak and woozy, slipping into a dream haze.”

#BookTrailerThursdays - Spectral

Book Trailer Thursdays!


To participate, post an entry in your blog on Thursdays with an embedded book trailer of your choice (note: the trailer can be fan made but please no movie trailers of book adaptations) with your thoughts and comments underneath. It can be a book you have read, want to read or have never even come across before.


This week:   


Spectral by Shannon Duffy

Convinced she's a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe—the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they've been lying to her all along.

As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she'll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

Spectral releases April 10, 2012 and will be available as ebook via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, Smashwords, Google, and Tribute-Books.com (tribute-books.com).