Blog Tour: Vigilante

ABOUT VIGILANTE:

A brutally honest, uncompromising story about a teen girl who decides to take matters into her own hands. 

It's senior year, and Hadley and her best friend, Magda, should be starting the year together. Instead, Magda is dead and Hadley is alone. Raped at a party the year before and humiliated, Magda was driven to take her own life and Hadley is forced to see her friend's attackers in the classroom every day. Devastated, enraged and needing an outlet for her grief, Hadley decides to get a little justice of her own. 

Donning a pink ski mask and fueled by anger, Hadley goes after each of the guys one by one, planning to strip them of their dignity and social status the way they did to Magda. As the legend of the pink-masked Vigilante begins to take on a life of its own, Hadley's revenge takes a turn for the dangerous. Could her need for vengeance lead her down a path she can't turn back from?

LINKS: Amazon | BN | Indiebound

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I think it's the perfect book to start a conversation about women and how they can help other women, how they can learn to protect themselves, and how shaming other women isn't right. I felt terrible for Magda and how the world turned on her. I love the idea of Hadley and her new sisterhood. I love how they helped each other out, on several occasions. I liked the idea of the Pink Vigilante, going after guys the law couldn't - but at the same time, I didn't always agree with her decisions. I know that I don't have those fighting skills - but this book makes me want to change that. I loved the romance of this book. I loved the friendship between Hadley and Zoe. I love how this book made girls feel powerful, in control of their lives, able to help others, and fight back. I really loved the addition of Detective Diane, she was powerful and yet her hands were tied at times. I love how she taught the classes and how she spoke at the school. The ending threw me, I wasn't expecting that! Vigilante is a powerful read about friendship, grief, death, healing, and getting a little of your own back. 

ABOUT KADY CROSS:
Kady Cross is a pseudonym for USA Today bestselling author Kathryn Smith. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and a pride of cats. She likes singing with Rock Band on the 360, British guys, Vietnamese food, and makeup (she’s hopelessly addicted to YouTube makeup tutorials!). When she’s not writing Kady likes to catch up on her favorite TV shows, read a good book or make her own cosmetics.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr

Tour Schedule:

Week 1:

3/20: The Irish Banana Review - Makeup Looks

3/21: The Fake Steph - Looks From Books

3/22: Megnificent Books - Review

3/23: Bibliobuli YA - Q&A

3/24: The Book Return - Review

Week 2:

3/27: Such A Novel Idea - Playlist

3/28: Books Are Love - Review

3/29: YA Book Nerd - Review

3/30: BCS Reviews - Review

3/31: Avid Reader - Top 10 Vigilantes

Giveaway:

3 Finished Copies of VIGILANTE (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Girl with the Iron Touch

 * Book 3 in the Steampunk Chronicles Series *  

After coming back from New York, Finely and Emily are annoyed with the boys. Something's bothering Griffin, but he refuses to share his troubles. Sam's having a hard time sharing his feelings with Emily. None of that matters when Emily is kidnapped.

Without jumping to conclusions, the gang fears their old enemy has somehow returned. While they don't understand how that's possible, all of them will do anything in their power to bring Emily back.

Can they defeat their greatest enemy - again?

My Thoughts: I really enjoy this series for the friendship, the action, and the romance. I love the four main characters - how they're different form everyone else, their sense of loyalty, and their desire to do the right thing. While I like the mechanics on the series, the automatons raise numerous ethical questions. I can't wait until the next book to see how it all ends.

Cover Thoughts: Fabulous

Source: My Library 

Books I'm Dying to Read: May Edition

Here's a list of books I can't wait to get my hands on come May - and there's a lot of them! 

Curses and Smoke:  A forbidden love story set with a natural disaster waiting to happen. 

Girl with a Wind Up Heart: I'm a book behind, but I really love this series

Castle Behind Thorns: Life in an enchanted castle! Sounds really great.

Revenge of the Flower Girls: Triplets plan to break up their sister's wedding.

Caitlin's Lucky Charm: New MG series by Lisa Schroeder 

Divided: sequel to Dualed. West thought she was safe now, but she was wrong

Everything Leads to You: Romance in Hollywood

The Pilot and the Little Prince: A book about the author and the inspiration behind his most famous book.

Tuesday Tucks Me In: Moments of the day between a soldier and a service dog

Art of Lainey: Love is a battlefield and Lainey's about to win back her ex.

Biggest Flirts: Love Jennifer Echols - could two flirts become series about each other?

Now and Forever: Love her books! What if your boyfriend becomes the biggest rockstar on the planet?

That Summer: Julia inherits a house in England that will change her life - love Lauren Willig's books.

Wild Storm: No Cover - love the Richard Castle books.

On a Clear Day: Re-release of two of Macomber's previous books, which I haven't read. Really love her books.

Stubby: the War Dog: I actually have this one and hope to read it this weekend

Greatest Star on Earth - love this sister team and I really liked the first book

This is a Moose: Saw pages for this at a preview and it looks super cute.

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend: New summer series about romance, ex-BFFs and fun in the sun.

Secrets of Lily Graves: Secrets come out when a girl's murdered making Lily and her almost boyfriend suspects.

Life by Committee: Sounds a little like My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody, which I loved.

We Were Liars: Everyone's raving about this book

Wish You Were Italian: Summer romance in Italy!

Chapel Wars: Wedding chapel to save - in Vegas!

After the End: What happens after you discover everything you thought was a big fat lie?

Killer Instinct: Lane is obsessed with serial killers...

Royally Lost: Sounds like a teen version of Roman Holiday

Deep Blue: Mermaids, assassins, and a quest!

Since You've Been Gone: When her BFF goes missing, Emily finds a random list. Could the list actually help her or its it too crazy?

The One: Dying for the ending of the Selection trilogy!

Top Ten Tuesday

This week's topic is  Top Ten Best Sequels Ever . I read a lot of series books and I admit that it's hard for me to take them as separate books - but I will try. I can't not choose my favorite Harry Potter book - because I love them all, but one for sure would be on the list.

- meme from The Broke and the Bookish

Harry Potter

Crown of Midnight
The Elite

Dark Triumph

Perfect Scoundrels

Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Taken by Storm

Mastermind Plot

Pies and Prejudice

Sweet Legacy

What about you?

CT Author Trail: Kady Cross

The Otis Library has been participating in the Connecticut Author Trail since it started 4 years ago. This year, Kady Cross was our author. 

Kady writes three different types of books with three different publishers. She uses different voices for each name, which allows her to write for different ages, without worrying that fans will find her older books.  She also writes under Kate Cross and Kate Locke.

With Harlequin Teen, she writes under Kady Cross. (Reviews of Girl in the Steel Corset and Girl in a Clockwork Collar).  She hopes the Steampunk Chronciles will have 5 books in the series. The next book will be about Emily, with her on the cover and maybe we her robot cat! I can't wait to see that cover (and of course read the book!) She uses a book on Victorian inventions and her husband (a science buff) for ideas on how to incorporate technology into this fabulous series.

She grew up in Nova Scotia, out in the middle of nowhere. A bookmobile would come around, which was fabulous. Bags of books were brought home and devoured.

Kady knew she liked writing when she was 8 and her teacher read her story aloud to her classmates. Everyone laughed in all the right spots and she thought, I could get used to this. Kady started writing her first romance at the age of 10, which was set in the deep south. She used to write stories for her classmates for their required silent reading period during school hours.

In her mid 20s, she quit her job and went back to school. Her boyfriend (now husband) encouraged her to write a book. When she finished it, she sent it to 4 publishing houses. Avon offered her a two book deal.

It was a GREAT night filled with lots of laughter and fun!

Here's our Room Set up: 
Dessert Table

 
Close Up of cookies

Chocolate Cameo:

 

The Book Table:

                                                  

The Swag:

Review: Girl in the Clockwork Collar

 * Book 2 in the Steampunk Chronicles series*

Following the ending to the first book, Griffin, Finely, Sam, and Emily travel to New York City to rescue their friend Jasper. While Jasper never talked about his past, he's kept a large secret from his friends.

Jasper got himself mixed up with scoundrels and mixed up in love. Now those scoundrels are threatening to harm the girl he used to (and probably could again) love. They want him to locate the item he stole.

Unfortunately for him, he broke the item into several pieces. Now he has to go all over the city recovering said item, hoping that Ming isn't ill treated, while pretending that he's going to come out of this situation alive and well.

Meanwhile, the other four do their best to help uncover the truth about Jasper's disappearance and the people he's hanging out with again.

My Thoughts: I'm LOVING this series. As soon as I finished the first book, I immediately devoured this book too. I loved the change in setting and looking at New York City in a different light. I loved Finely's strength to infiltrate a gang without causing too much suspicion. I'm impressed by her snark and attitude. I liked how she stood up to Dalton - not showing her fear and not giving in to him. I enjoyed the moments of banter between her and Jasper, but I loved the moments between her and Griffin. I can't wait for more books in this series!

Cover Thoughts: Great - I love the necklace
Source: BEA - from Harlequin!

Review: Girl in the Steel Corset

Finley Jayne isn't normal; she has something dark inside her. Something that lets her heal faster. Something that lets her use more strength than she should possess. Something that gets her into trouble at times.

When the son of her employer starts to make moves on her, she rebuffs him once. When he keeps pushing the issue, she knocks him unconscious.  She flees the scene, knowing that she'll never get a reference.

As she's running down the street, she comes in contact with a vehicle. Griffin King is behind the wheel and the Duke takes her in. He can see the darkness within her, but he's not scared. He's the leader of a band of misfits and he thinks Finley will fit in perfectly.

Plus, he's in danger himself. Someone and something is coming after him. Griffin will need everyone around him to help him. There's something about Finley's eyes, something he can't turn away from.Could he be able to help her?

My Thoughts: I devoured this book, hungry for more. I hope there's plenty planned in this series. I just adored the steampunk angle. I love Victorian London. The setting was perfect. The machines fit in perfectly with the story, allowing for a fantastic blend of history and science fiction.
I enjoyed the two sides of Finely - the normal side and the side where she doesn't take crap from anyone. Griffin is the perfect male hero, dark and brooding but sweet. I adored Emily. I liked her tentative friendship with Finely. I admired her brains and her mechanical abilities. I liked Sam, but it did take me some time to come around to him. I liked Jasper.  I came to love this band of misfits and I can't wait to read many more books in this series!

Cover Thoughts: Gorgeous!
Source: my friend Jess from I Read to Relax - thanks Jess!

Fun Fact: Kady Cross is coming to my library TODAY! I'm super excited!!