Friday, June 3, 2011

Book Tour: Cursebusters! by Julie Smith




Cursebusters! by Julie Smith
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Publish Date: May 17, 2011
Paperback, 264 pages
ISBN: 978-1602825598
Young Adult, Paranormal

** I apologize, I am running behind and have just started this book.  I hope to have all four reviews from the past two days up over the weekend.  Until then, learn more about this book below.  **

About the Book:
Budding-psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she's sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help.

But wait, maybe she can! The school psychics have found each other and formed their own club. With the help of her gay friend Carlos and the other Ozone Rangers, Reeno finds out Haley’s disease is the result of an ancient Mayan curse. And A.B., the group's sinister non-faculty adviser, claims he knows how to break it.

All Reeno has to do is time-travel to an ancient Mayan city and steal a little item A.B. needs to save the world. Since she’s an ace thief, he has complete confidence she can execute the task before the outraged Mayans can execute her.

But can she trust A.B.? Despite his cuddly appearance, she knows he’s a merciless predator and ruthless assassin.

And he's not even human.
About the Author:
Julie Smith is a former journalist who began her career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and then moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle, where she remained for fifteen years, absorbing gritty realism and (hopefully) street smarts, as careful preparation for a life of crime. Crime-writing, that is.

She’s the author of 20 adult mysteries featuring three female sleuths and one neglected guy: A cop (Officer Skip Langdon, NOPD), a PI (Talba Wallis, poet and computer genius, also of New Orleans), a semi-amateur detective (Rebecca Schwartz, San Francisco lawyer), and a complete amateur (Paul McDonald, crime writer, also of San Francisco). The first book in the Skip Langdon series, New Orleans Mourning, won the Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Novel.

Cursebusters!, Smith’s first YA novel, is also her first paranormal adventure. While writing it, she met a young male editor who gave her the quote she thinks most embodies the spirit of the book and her own philosophy as a YA author. It’s this: “There’s far too much emphasis in YA on the importance of girls getting the guy (or the girl—this is Bold Strokes here!) and not nearly enough on the importance of girls kicking ass.” Smith deeply and firmly believes in the importance of girls kicking ass, an opportunity they’re seldom afforded in real life—hence, every opportunity must be taken in fiction.



FTC Information: I received this book through The Teen Book Scene to review for the current tour.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

 



Book Tour: Faith by Jennifer Haigh



Faith by Jennifer Haigh
Publisher: Harper
Publish Date: May 10, 2011
Hardcover, 336 pages 
Fiction
ISBN:
978-0060755805






*** My review will be coming later today ***

About the Book:
When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself. Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows her critically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimble and The Condition with a captivating, vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief and devotion, in Faith.

About the Author:




Jennifer Haigh is the author of the New York Times bestseller Baker Towers, winner of the 2006 PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author; Mrs. Kimble, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction and was a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year; and The Condition.

Her fiction has appeared in Granta, Ploughshares, Good Housekeeping, and elsewhere. She lives in the Boston area.

Visit Jennifer at her website.


Jennifer’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, May 10th: Booking Mama
Wednesday, May 11th: The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness
Thursday, May 12th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Friday, May 13th: 5 Minutes for Books
Monday, May 16th: Hospitable Pursuits
Tuesday, May 17th: The House of the Seven Tails
Wednesday, May 18th: nomadreader
Thursday, May 19th: Bookchickdi
Friday, May 20th: Stargazerpuj’s Book Blog
Monday, May 23rd: As I turn the pages
Tuesday, May 24th: Books in the City
Wednesday, May 25th: Life In Review
Thursday, May 26th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books
Friday, May 27th: The Prissy Book Snob
Monday, May 30th: Bookstack
Tuesday, May 31st: Confessions of a Rambling Mind
Wednesday, June 1st: Colloquium
Thursday, June 2nd: Proud Book Nerd
Friday, June 3rd: My Reading Room
Monday, June 6th: Reading Between the Lines
Tuesday, June 7th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Wednesday, June 8th: Peeking Between the Pages
Thursday, June 9th: The Book Chick
Friday, June 10th: BookNAround
Tuesday, June 14th: Rundpinne
Wednesday, June 15th: For the love of books
Thursday, June 16th: Literate Housewife
Friday, June 17th: Amused By Books