Belle Whittington

I’ve had the fantastic opportunity to spend the day visiting, I Rawr Books, lovely Tamanna’s blog and chatting about books! Stop by to check it out! Don’t forget to leave her some bloggy love in the comments on her adorable blog!

WooHoo! Another 5 stars for “Cicada”! Pop on over to BookSpark and check out the review! ♥ Don’t forget to leave some love!

Ever wonder what my Writer’s Cave looks like??? Well here’s your chance to find out! 

Check out AToMR’s and Good Choice Reading’s tour schedule for the last day of the Cicada bloggy blitz tour! Lot’s of fun, festivities and GIVEAWAYS! Even an awesome GRAND PRIZE! Check it out and follow along! ♥

Hey, Y’all! Happy Wednesday! WOW! Check out AToMR’s and Good Choice Reading’s tour schedule for day three of the Cicada bloggy blitz tour! Lot’s of fun, festivities and GIVEAWAYS! Even an awesome GRAND PRIZE! Check it out and follow along! ♥

Lot’s of fun going on today, Peeps and Peepettes!

Today is day 1 of the Cicada Tour hosted by AToMR & Good Choice Reading!

Check it out!  And don’t forget to ENTER THE GIVEAWAYS!  There’s even a really cool GRAND PRIZE!!!!

Today’s tour schedule:

The Princess of Storyland ~ Review

Chapter by Chapter ~ Guest Post/ Your road in self-publishing

Fictional Distraction ~ Author Interview

Letters Inside Out ~ Excerpt #1

Splash Of Our Worlds ~ Review

That Artsy Reader Girl ~ Review

Pen to Paper ~ Playlist

Singing and Reading in the Rain ~ Review

eileenlisblog.blogspot.com

Maji Bookshelf ~ Spotlight Post

Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf ~ Review

The Autumn Review ~ Review

Chelsea Rafferty won the chocolate giveaway on my Facebook Fanpage!  YAY, Chelsea!  I sent you an email! :-)

Thanks to everyone who entered! I do these chocolate giveaways from time-to-time, so keep your eyes peeled! Also, when we reach 320 new “likes” I’ll give away some bookmarks! :-)

I love my readers and followers! You make all this worthwhile ♥

Blurb:
Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun…until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair’s true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their entire survival depends upon their ability to keep a secret. 

My Review of Cicada:

I loved this story! It is not your usual paranormal fantasy story. Throw in some intriguing sci-fi and it blows you away! It is told from the point of view of Blair Reynolds as she hangs out with her older friends as they enjoy their carefree youthful lives. In the summer, things start happening around them that can’t be explained. Together they must fight for eachother’s lives, accept changes to come and ultimately find each of their fates.

It was refreshing not to read about werewolves, vampires and the like. This introduces a more scifi element with aliens. Or is it? Belle throws a spin on the legends of crop  circles, lights in the sky and even the tale of twins. I loved the suspense, the realism and the smooth writing that kept me engrossed and turning each page. The story fuses reality and the unknown easily but leaves you with  enough mystery that you are attached to the characters and story until the very end. I look forward to the next installment, the end was definitely left wide open for another one. I can’t wait!

5 out of 5 stars!

I received this book from the author for an honest review for her blog tour.

Please Welcome Author Belle Whittington!

May 25, 2012 by nicolestorey

Today, I am honored to join in on a wonderful blog tour for my dear friend and fellow author, Belle Whittington!  This post is part of the exciting blog tour hosted by Megan at Reading Away the Days: http://readingawaythedays.blogspot.com/

I encourage you all to follow along on Megan’s wonderful blog!  She offers so much to readers and writers!

Belle’s book, Cicada, was one of the first I reviewed when I started my blog.  You can read the review here! I absolutely loved this book and cannot wait for her second book in this series, Firefly!  So, to give you a little taste of what the book is about, here is the blurb!

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun… until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair’s true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret.

Sounds awesome, right?  Trust me – it is WAY more than awesome!  Check out the book trailer on Youtube!

Today I have Belle Whittington author of Cicada in the spotlight!

Welcome to the blog Belle, What inspired you to write CICADA? 

There’s not any one thing that inspired me to write Cicada. I find inspiration in everything around me, and there are a lot of cumulative memories of inspiration from over the years that all culminated 

Growing up in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas, afforded me summers full of adventure with my friends. I call on those adventures and memories a great deal for my YA stories. Cicada has a lot of the energy of those childhood adventures spun throughout. One of them is something that actually happened to me when I was thirteen years old. I was on one of my adventures in the woods with my dog, Dusty. We made our way through the woods to a neighboring pasture and crawled through the barbed wire fence. When we got to the top of one of the rolling hills in the grassy field, I realized I was standing in the middle of a giant circle imprinted in the pasture grass. No one had ever told me about crop circles at that time in my life, so I just thought it was an odd occurrence that there was a strange circle in the tall grass. Now that circle is forever memorialized in a YA novel, Cicada! 

Indie publishing- Why do you think it’s becoming so popular? 

Traditional gatekeepers (agents, etc.) have long held the power of setting trends of what was published and when it was published, thereby deciding for the masses what would be in vogue in the writing world. The pendulum has swung toward the readers and book bloggers/reviewers, who are now the new gatekeepers. I think Indie Publishing is becoming so popular because authors finally have a venue to publish their works without having to conform to what the traditional gatekeepers want. Indie authors are now able to offer readers a wider variety within each genre, which is better for the reader. Also, there are so many viable options for indie publishing available now, allowing authors to create quality books for readers. That’s my two-cents-worth! 

CICADA has become a movie, who is playing your main character and why? 

Oh, I really do love this question, because I actually have in mind a list of actors who could easily step into the shoes of my characters. By no means did I pattern my characters after these actors though. However, I feel they would fit the parts very well! How about I go a step further and show you who I think could fill all their shoes? Drum roll………..

Today I’d like to welcome a fun group a young friends from Cicada, who are here to answer my questions, get ready for some interesting answers!

SNR: What is your ideal summer vacation? With friends or family? 

David interrupts the rest of the group by saying, “I’ll answer this one.”  Then he puts his arm around Natalie and says, “Best vacation would be me and Natalie on a tropical island.”

“I’d like to go on a trip to the Congo for bug collecting,” Everett said while pushing his glasses up.  “With friends would be the most fun…if I could get them to come along.  What about you, Blair?  Would you go?”

“Try and stop me, Bug Boy!” Blair giggled and elbowed Everett in the ribs.

“My perfect vacation?  All of my friends, the ones sitting here with me today, and my family on a camping trip in the mountains.  I think that would be the perfect vacation,” Andrew answered, smiling at his friends.

“What David said,” Natalie answered, smiling and gently laying her head on David’s shoulder.

Pop over to Cicada Book Blog Tour Stop #3 to read the review and ENTER THE GIVEAWAY for an autographed paperback of Cicada and bookmark!  Oh!  And show the blog some love! <3

Courtesy of Teen Book Scene…

You know how it seems like lately that all YA Fantasy novels revolve around the same topics…wolves, vampires, ghosts?  Recently I’ve read two new novels that break away from this trend – Cobbogoth and now Cicada, a debut novel from author Belle Whittington.  Belle breaks from traditional fantasy/science fiction by giving us a novel about aliens, and it’s freaky.

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun…until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair’s true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret.

That’s a pretty bare-bones summary for a book that has so much more.  This story is basically a mystery involving a brother and sister, Blair and Andrew.  We discover that they have recently lost their brother and father, and details about how they die are teased out until almost the very end.  What started out as tragic deaths later has weird ties to the other mystery going on in this story – what the kids discover in the woods.  At a graduation party for Andrew, the kids go out on quads where they have an encounter with a spaceship and then much more.  How does this all tie in to the mysterious store-front with eerie lights across from the drive-in?  How are Blair, Andrew, and their grandfather all connected to what’s going on in the woods?  How will Everett, Andrew’s friend and Blair’s secret crush, be effected by all that happens?  Belle Whittington has certainly given us a story full of mystery and suspense – and the story will continue in her next installment titled, Firefly.

Click here to read the rest of review and ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!

Post by the lovely Mrs. L.

My Review:
I wasn’t completely sure about reading this book when the author approached me to be honest. Not because I didn’t think she was a good writer (because I do) or because I didn’t think the cover was pretty (because it is) but because a book about aliens? Just usually so not my thing.
In fact, I think I have only read like..three in my life time. So you see why I was a little apprehensive about trying it.
Little did I know that I had nothing to fear.
This book was so great and unusual and unique and just a fun mysterious read.
We don’t get all the answers to what is going on or why or even how.
Instead Belle Whittington pulls you in with the mystery and gives you little bits here and there, just enough to appease you and drive you crazy at the same time and leave your mind reeling with what in the world is going to happen next.
The book leaves you wanting more, wanting to know more about the creatures and the friends and just….well everything.
I really look forward to the second installment of the series so I can find out more. 
I really think anyone that enjoys Sci-fi will really love this book, in fact, even if you don’t love Sci-fi I think you will enjoy this book. 

Go here to read the entire post…

Post by Kindlemom

My friend Cindy at Princess Bookie is hosting this giveaway!
Summary: What’s a girl to do when meeting The One means she’s cursed to die a horrible death?
Life hasn’t been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she’s irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can’t stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma’s been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.
By Cara Lynn ShultzDonated by Lisa (Publicist)Paperback EditionOpen To United States and Canada Only