With so many of us having to shelter in place, I decided for the first time to place The Beltane Escape and The Amber Elixir in Kindle Unlimited. The Amber Elixir contains spoilers, so read The Beltane Escape first!
What better time to escape into Medieval Scotland and Fairy, and dive into an Arthurian romance set on Avalon?
The Beltane Escape Review
"A fantastic, high paced read that grips you right from the beginning! Ariella Moon has such a great magical imagination, and it shows in her tale of a fantastical past. If you like Brave mixed with Arthurian legend, this is your next read for sure!" Freddie, Amazon 5 star review
The Amber Elixir Review "Ariella Moon has done a great job of weaving classic Arthurian elements and her own imaginings into this novella. It's a really interesting blend of fantasy elements at play and I loved learning more as I read.
I think fans of classic fantasy novels will love the world we get here. It's very complex and rich and completely captivates you." SERIESousBook Reviews Both books are also available in paperback. AmazonBarnes and Noble
Can two people forge a future when
their secret pasts collide?
As Christmas nears, sophomore
Ainslie Avalon-Bennett works hard to hide her Crazy Girl past. But as long as
her best friend’s disappearance remains unsolved, she can’t shake the obsessive-compulsive
disorder that once landed her in a mental ward. Thor Grael, a teen dragon
shaman, spikes Ainslie’s pulse and calms her OCD.But will she lose him once he discovers her
past? Or will Thor’s deadly secret be their undoing?
Today I welcome the fabulous Krysten Lindsay Hager, whose Landry's True Colors Series is a clean reads young adult humor series about
friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies,
crushes, and self-image. It’s suitable for ages 10 and
up.
Landry in Like
(Landry's True Colors Series: Book 3) by Krysten Lindsay Hager
Blurb: Things
seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on
local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her
back, and her boyfriend Vladi has becoming someone she can truly count on…and
then everything changes. Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are
into hanging out at a new teen dance club, while Landry just wants to spend her
weekends playing video games and baking cupcakes at sleepovers. Then, Yasmin
McCarty, the most popular girl in school, starts to come between Landry’s
friendship with Ashanti. Things take a turn when Yasmin tells Vladi that Landry
is interested in another boy. Can Landry get her relationships with Ashanti and
Vladi back or will she be left out and left behind?
Excerpt:
I wanted to call my friends and tell them about being on the
talk show, but Mom said we had to be at the TV station super early — even
before school started. She said I could text them, but I had to turn off my
phone and go to bed.
“I’m waking you up at four a.m.,” she said. “You have to be
there at five-thirty.”
“Can I just call Peyton and Ashanti? Please?”
“Fine, but you have five minutes and then that phone is mine
and you’re in bed.”
I dialed Peyton, but her mom said she was in the shower. I
told her mom about the show tomorrow and said my mom wouldn’t let me stay up
any later to call Peyton back.
“How exciting! I will make sure Peyton knows, and I will be
watching you tomorrow. Good luck, honey,” Mrs. Urich said.
I called Ashanti next and told her.
“Get out. Get. Out. No way. This is so exciting!”
“I’m so nervous. My stomach is already doing cartwheels. I
can’t do one, but my stomach can. Seems unfair. What if I throw up before I go
on? I did that right before I went on at the statewide Ingénue modeling competition in Detroit, and my mom had to give me
a cough drop to cover up the smell.”
“I’m sure you’ll be
fine, but… just in case, take a cough drop with you,” Ashanti said. “Good luck.
You’ll be great and I’ll go set the DVR now.”
I hung up and sent a
text to Vladi, India, Devon, Thalia, Tori, and Ericka, so no one would be mad
and feel left out. Then I shut off my phone. Mom poked her head in the door to
make sure I was in bed.
“Night, hon. Try to get some rest,” she said.
Easier said than done. I stared at my ceiling while thinking
about all the things that could possibly go wrong tomorrow. Seeing as the show
was on in the morning, I never got to watch it, so I had no idea what the set
was like — did it have super high chairs and I’d struggle to get into them? And
what if it had those higher stools that were kind of tippy and my rear overshot
the seat and I fell off? Or what if the prep questions got lost and the
interviewer asked me random things like my feelings on nuclear war or asked me
about some foreign political leader who I had never heard of before, and I
appeared stupid? Why did I say I’d do this? I tried to get comfortable and it
felt like I had just dozed off when I felt my mom shaking my shoulder.
Author bio:
Krysten Lindsay Hager is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series, a clean
reads young adult series and the new Star Series. Krysten writes aboutfriendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle
school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image in
True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?
And Landry in Like, as well as in, Next Door to a Star (Star Series). Her
sequel to Next Door to a Star will be
out March 22 2016.
Krysten is a book addict who has never met a bookstore she
didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes YA, MG, humor essays, and
adult fiction. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South
Dakota, and currently resides in southwestern Ohio where you can find her
reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She
received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.
What people are
saying about True Colors (Landry’s True Colors Series Book One):
From Teenage Book Recommendations in the UK: “This is a
fantastically relatable and real book which I feel captures all of the
insecurities and troubles which haunt the modern teenage girl. It is about a
young model who has to go through tough times when she is torn between a life
as a model and managing her friendships. You learn which friends she can most
trust and which will create the drama typical of teenage life. Follow the life
of Landry and try to see if you can find out which are her true friends before
their true colors are revealed. This book is all about relationships, hopes
and truth. I loved this book!”
A few questions for Krysten:
Who is your favorite
author?
F. Scott Fitzgerald is my favorite. I had to read The Great
Gatsby twice in school, but I didn’t connect to it until I was an adult and
then I fell in love with it.
How do you describe
your writing style?
I always write with humor and my main characters wear their
hearts on their sleeves. My two teen series both deal with self-esteem, growing
up/coming of age, and first love.
Use no more than two
sentences. Why should we read your book?
Landry in Like
will take you back to your school days and make you laugh and feel for her as
she grows up and navigates through school. There are funny moments, cringe
worthy moments, and life lessons on how to deal with everything from frenemies,
first loves, anxiety, and friendships.
If you could exchange
lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose
and why?
I would choose Hadley from Next Door to a Star (Star Series: Book One) because when she moves
to a beach town, she has the chance to reinvent herself and start over and that
idea is very intriguing to me. Plus, she lives in Grand Haven, Michigan—a
beautiful beach town.
What books have most
influenced your life?
I read a biography of a YA author, Paula Danziger, years ago
and it made me realize that writing young adult fiction was what I was meant to
do. It was always something I wanted to do, but I never realized that all those
awkward and difficult moments I went through in my teen years might have been
setting me up to help another teen in the same situation down the road. That
biography shaped my vision of what I wanted to do in life.
Medieval Scotland. Fairy. A kidnapped Highland heiress.
Let the fantasy begin.
The Beltane Escape by Ariella Moon. Book One: The Two Realms Trilogy
Blurb
Lady Fenella,
ever surrounded by guards, knows only responsibility and duty. She believes
Merlin and the Lady of the Lake are myths, Gran’s warnings about Fairy are
superstition, and Fairy was invented to make children behave.
But
then Gran brands her, Lord Argonshire kidnaps her, and the Lady of
the Lake makes her a pawn. The Highland heiress must betray her newly betrothed
and fend for herself when she dives into a wormhole to save her cousin. She
lands in a part of Fairy even fairies avoid, and joins forces with a
half-Viking/half-Fairy.
Fenella must
use her wits to find her cousin, free the Lady of the Lake, and reach the
wormhole in Glastonbury by Beltane. Nine days to unshackle herself from a
sorceress, prevent a war between two clans, and decide in which realm—and with
which lad—she truly belongs. Oh, and The Most Powerful Wizard stands
in her way.
